[UPDATE] Egypt seizes ship carrying arms, questions crew - Conflicting information
Source: Reuters/Israel International News
(Reuters) - Egyptian navy forces seized a ship carrying heavy weapons as it entered Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea late on Wednesday, a military spokesman said on Thursday.
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Egyptian forces seize COM R. Image: ShipFinder/Shipspotting.cxom
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UPDATE - Conflicting information with regards to the name of the ship being held and that some reports are indicating that it may be an Iranian fishing vessel that is being detained, not the COM R.
The Togolese-flagged ship, called COM R, was found 12 nautical miles north of Ras Muhammad in the Sinai Peninsula, general staff spokesman Ahmed Mohamed Ali said on his Facebook page.
"Inside they found a number of weapons and quantities of ammunition of various types," Ali said.
"The boat belongs to a private maritime security company which serves to secure ships passing through highly dangerous areas, especially in light of the spread of piracy in the southern Red Sea area and off the Somali coast," he added.
Security sources told Reuters earlier that the ship, with a crew of at least seven, spent a week in international waters before entering Egyptian waters.
The vessel was escorted into the port of Safaga, 569 km (356 miles) southeast of Cairo, where the crew members were being questioned and an investigation was under way to determine whether the weapons were legal, the sources said.
"The weapons and ammunition seized in the vessel are linked to the nature of their work and the tasks assigned to them to secure commercial vessels," Ali said in his statement.
International shipping companies have begun to employ private security firms to ward off the threat of Somali pirates, with contractors often picking up weapons from ships off the coast of Djibouti as they enter the areas at risk.
That, together with the presence international warships patrolling the Indian Ocean, has seen the number of successful pirate seizures of ships fall sharply to five ships in 2012, from 25 in 2011, and 27 in 2010. (Reuters reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Paul Taylor and Jon Hemming)
Conflicting Information
But Israel's Channel 10 television contradicted the Egyptian military's version, reporting that the boat was carrying 40 tons of Iranian weapons destined for Syria or Gaza.
Egyptian maritime authorities have seized a ship with a crew of 14 and a cargo of 105 crates of unspecified weapons and ammunition, which belonged to an African security company, Egyptian security officials told AFP.
No comment was immediately available from Israeli officials.
AFP noted that in his statement, Ali did not say whether the ship was released, but security officials had said the vessel would be held while authorities investigate whether it was carrying smuggled weapons.
According to a report by news website NOW, quoted in Lebanese website Ya Libnan, the ship, which was seized about ten miles away from the Ras Mohammad national park in the Sinai peninsula, was carrying more than 50,000 light and mediumweapons as well "a huge quantity of ammunition."
People from several nationalities, including Iranians, were on board the ship, the report said.
The report also noted that the Egyptian authorities were still investigating to determine the final destination of the ship and whether it was heading for Gaza or aimed at arming insurgent groups in Sinai.
A completely different version of the event was carried earlier by AFP. It quoted Egyptian officials who said Thursday that Egypt's navy had seized a weapons-laden ship and detained its crew "who had set off from the Israeli port of Eilat en route to the African country of Togo."
The crew and vessel will be held in the Red Sea port of Safaga until the authorities ascertain whether the weapons were being smuggled, the officials added.
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