Washington - Acoustical spy tapes made by a US submarine in the Barents Sea support the theory that a faulty torpedo apparently exploded and sank the Russian submarine Kursk, US officials said yesterday.
The officials confirmed a New York Times report that sonar tapes and other recordings that captured sounds of two explosions believed to have sunk the Kursk on August 12th, killing all 118 persons aboard, contained the strongest evidence of the US theory of a torpedo accident.
The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the USS Memphis, one of two US submarines monitoring Russian naval exercises in the Barents Sea, had unloaded tapes in Norway after the incident and the tapes were being analysed at the National Maritime Intelligence Centre near Washington.
A Russian minister said yesterday that the recovery of the bodies of the 118 men who died on board the Kursk would begin next month. But the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Ilya Klebanov, played down the suggestions, backed yesterday by the US officials, that an exploding torpedo caused the disaster.