US Seals take control of rogue Libya oil ship

US Navy Seals boarded and took control of an oil tanker yesterday that had loaded crude at a rebel-held port in eastern Libya and escaped to sea, the Pentagon said. The weak Tripoli government’s failure to halt the tanker had plunged the country into one of its biggest crises since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, with parliament ousting Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who fled the country. No one 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”, Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement. Obama approval The operation was approved by President Barack Obama and was conducted in the early hours of yesterday in international waters southeast of Cyprus. The Seals operated from the USS Roosevelt, a guided missile destroyer which provided helicopter support, while sailors from another destroyer, the USS Stout, boarded the tanker and prepared to sail it to an unnamed port in Libya, the statement read. The Morning Glory last week slipped through a Libyan naval blockade of the eastern port of Al-Sidra - controlled by rebels seeking autonomy from Tripoli - after reportedly being loaded with some 234 000 barrels of crude. Takeover Libya’s interim government confirmed the takeover of the ship and thanked “particularly the United States and the Republic of Cyprus.” It said in a statement that the tanker was on its way to Libya and that crew members “will be treated in accordance with national and international laws.” “Oil is the lifeblood of the national economy and any attack on the treasures of the Libyan people is unacceptable and cannot go without a response,” it added. Cyprus said its vessels had deployed to monitor the tanker’s course as it made its way near the Mediterranean island, remaining in international waters and eventually stopping 18 nautical miles south of the southern port city of Limassol.