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Late Thursday, U.S. Central Command released video it claimed showed Iranians successfully removing the mine from the ship.

Iranian officials flatly denied any involvement in the attacks.

Iran's mission to the United Nations has issued the country's first response to the US assertion that Iran is behind today's oil vessel attacks, calling it part of an \"Iranophobic campaign.\"

\"Iran categorically rejects the U.S. unfounded claim with regard to 13 June oil tanker incidents and condemns it in the strongest possible terms,\" Alireza Miryousefi, head of the press office at Iran's Mission to the U.N., said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the U.S. \"immediately jumped to makes allegations against Iran,\" in a tweet late Thursday.

That the US immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran—w/o a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence—only makes it abundantly clear that the #B_Team is moving to a #PlanB: Sabotage diplomacy—including by @AbeShinzo—and cover up its #EconomicTerrorism against Iran.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) June 14, 2019

A distress call was received from the Front Altair at 6:12am local time in Bahrain, forty five minutes later a second ship, the Kokuka Courageous issued its own distress signal after a series of explosions set fire to the ship.

The 21 mariners aboard the Kokuka Courageous were picked up by a nearby Dutch tugboat before being transferred to the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Bainbridge that had been in the vicinity. U.S. Central Command said that transfer occurred after the Bainbridge beat an Iranian vessel in a race to the Dutch tug and the master of the Kokuka Courageous asked that his crew be placed aboard the U.S. Navy ship.

According to a U.S. official, during a hull damage inspection after the initial explosion the ship's crew spotted an unexploded mine attached to the hull. The crew of the USS Bainbridge and a U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance aircraft verified the presence of an unexploded mine attached to the ship.

\"PHOTO:
ISNA/AP
PHOTO: An oil tanker is on fire in the sea of Oman, June 13, 2019.
>

Later, that aircraft spotted the crews of some of the Iranian small boats attempting to remove the unexploded mine in an attempt to recover evidence that could connect Iran to the attacks, said a U.S. official.

The Bainbridge is staying close to the Kokuka Courageous as another destroyer the USS Mason is en route to the area to provide assistance, U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Thursday.

The other tanker, the Norwegian-flagged Front Altair, suffered significant damage after the explosion of two to three mines triggered a massive fire on board the ship. A U.S. official said the ship is in jeopardy of sinking with its cargo of naptha, a flammable hydrocarbon.

The 23 mariners aboard the Front Altair were rescued by the crew of the nearby Hyundai Dubai before they were transferred to an Iranian vessel that took them to an Iranian port. Images on Iranian television showed the ship's crew in a holding room watching television.

The attacks come at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran after an American aircraft carrier was deployed to the Middle East in what the U.S. said was an effort to deter possible Iranian attacks against U.S. forces or interests in the region.

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy U.S. Central Command
PHOTO: A photo released by U.S. Central Command shows the Kokuka Courageous with damage from a suspected mine as well as an unexploded mine farther toward the front of the ship.
>

A statement from U.S. Central Command issued late Thursday called the attacks \"a threat to maritime shipping and international commerce,\" but also sought to ease tensions in the region.

\"We have no interest in engaging in a new conflict in the Middle East,\" said the statement. \" We will defend our interests, but a war with Iran is not in our strategic interest, nor in the best interest of the international community.\"

U.S. officials have publicly blamed Iran for explosive sabotage attacks using magnetic mines in mid-May against four commercial vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

1 of 4: We applaud the remarkable courage of the crew of the @USNavy’s USS Bainbridge in rescuing merchant mariners from a Panamanian ship on fire following the attack in the Gulf of Oman. Our servicemembers are in harm's way protecting international norms & freedoms.

— Acting SecDef Pat Shanahan (@ActingSecDef) June 13, 2019

Prior to that attack, there had been sightings of about 20 Iranian fast attack vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz to the general area where those attacks occurred, said one U.S. official.

That attacks came nearly a week after the U.S. had accelerated the deployment to the Middle East of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and sent B-52 bombers to deter possible Iranian attacks to U.S. forces and interests in the region. The Lincoln was in port in Oman, but pulled out back into open waters on Thursday morning, an official said.

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters recently that the deployment had led Iran to “step back and recalculate” though the U.S. still saw “possible imminent threats.”

Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, tweeted that the timing of attack on the tankers was suspicious because it occurred during a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Ayatollah Khameini, Iran's supreme leader.

\"Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what likely transpired this morning,\" he tweeted.

Earlier, Khameini had said during his meeting with Abe that that while Tehran doesn't want an atomic bomb, \"America could not do anything\" to stop Iran if it did.

ABC's Conor Finnegan and Zoe Magee contributed to this report.

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