The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has detained a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf smuggling fuel to certain Arab nations. According to the IRGC, the tanker was detained on Wednesday, 31 July 2019.The IRGC has released a video of the seizure as reported by PressTV
"The IRGC's naval forces have seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was smuggling fuel for some Arab countries", Press TV reported citing IRGC commander Ramezan Zirahi.
According to Iran's Guards commander, the seized vessel was carrying 700,000 litres of fuel. The commander added that the seven sailors of different nationalities onboard had been detained.
The vessel carrying the smuggled fuel has been transferred to Bushehr and the smuggled fuel delivered to the National Oil Products Distribution Company of Bushehr in accordance with Iranian law.
A short video published by the Iranian channel Press TV on social media shows the IRGC patrol boats approaching the ship, which reportedly had as many as 700,000 liters of fuel on board. An IRGC commander told the media that the vessel was captured near the island of Farsi in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday.
The seized vessel is an Iraqi ship, the Iranian IRNA news agency said, citing the IRGC. It is still unclear who owns the tanker and where exactly it was heading, though. Seven crew members were arrested by the Iranian authorities. It is the third foreign tanker captured by Iran in the gulf over the past weeks. One of the ships had links with the United Arab Emirates while another one was a British-flagged vessel.
"We are treating [the El Paso shooting] as a domestic terrorist case, there's a statutory definition of domestic terrorism .... this meets it. It appears to be designed to intimidate a civilian population," US Attorney for Western District of Texas John Bash said at a press conference, Sunday.In the meantime normal people did what normal people do, comfort each other and help:
He added that "we're going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is to deliver swift and certain justice."
The shooter, earlier identified in the media as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, was said to be cooperating with the investigation.
The suspect is believed to have bought the firearm used during the rampage legally, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said.
Prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty for the suspect.
The El Paso massacre took place early on Saturday when the suspect, armed with an AK-style rifle, stormed a local Walmart shooting people in the parking lot and inside the store. At least 20 people were killed and 26 more injured.
A "manifesto" was posted online before the rampage, apparently detailing the shooter's extreme-right views and branding the attack a response to the "Hispanic invasion" of Texas. The document is yet to be directly linked to the shooter, police said on Sunday.
Local media reported that blood donation centers were"overwhelmed" after hundreds answered the calls from police and city officials for people to donate blood for the victims.
Residents and reporters at the scene shared videos on social media of people standing in long lines outside and inside the facilities. Some stood for hours, waiting for their turn to help the victims.
"I went to go donate blood but the facility didn't have room for any more cars and the streets were flooded with people trying to get in," one person wrote.
"My mother and I went to donate blood and there is a line of hundreds of people around the block. All standing in 101 degree sun," another Twitter user said. "People can be wonderful."
Sandra Ramirez, an anchor at the local KTSM 9 News channel, said that volunteers were bringing pizza, water and energy drinks to people enduring the heat to stand in lines in front of the blood donation centers.
Transport service Lyft, meanwhile, had offered free rides to people wishing to donate blood in El Paso.
The inflow of donors helped nonprofit Vitalant to receive more than 240 units of blood for the victims in just one day, the organization said.
"These are all a bunch of dirty cops and, I'll tell you, some of them better go to jail, or we're going to go down in a spiral in this country because you will not have a Republican that will trust the FBI or the Department of Justice for generations to come."House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Tucker Carlson to discuss the ongoing investigative situation with James Comey.
Comment: Also see: Murderous rampage unfolds at Walmart in El Paso, Texas: Eyewitnesses report multiple gunmen - UPDATE: 20 dead