Rogue Libyan oil tanker seized by US Seals
Before dawn this morning, US Navy commandos boarded and took control of a North Korean-flagged tanker loaded with crude oil smuggled out of Libya, the Pentagon has confirmed.
The move foils attempts by a breakaway Libyan militia to sell the cargo, which is owned by the Libyan government’s National Oil Company, on the black market. It’ll now be returned to Libyan authorities.
The oil was loaded on at the rebel-held port of Sidra, where the tanker’s been docked. Local daily al-Wasat report last week that the ship has $36m of crude oil on it.
Sidra is currently under the control of Ibrahim Jadran, the 32-year old warlord with a history in oil.
Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan had ordered an attack on the North-Korean-flagged tanker, but his failure to stop the activity saw him sacked by the country’s Islamist-led congress last Tuesday; he then fled to Europe.
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement today that nobody was hurt "when US forces, at the request of both the Libyan and Cypriot governments, boarded and took control of the commercial tanker Morning Glory, a stateless vessel seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans.”
North Korea has denied providing authorisation for the action. News reports have said it was being operated by a company based in Egypt, and was in the Mediterranean looking for buyers for the oil.