Nato commandos were suspected of having carried out a daring raid on an anchored oil tanker owned by the Gaddafi family that was on Wednesday night sailing from Malta to the Libyan rebel-held capital of Benghazi.
A Libya flagged vessel steered by the rebels and assisted by contingent of naval special forces boarded the Cartagena just outside Maltese territorial waters on Wednesday morning.
The Cartagena is owned by the Libyan government’s shipping arm, the General National Maritime Transport Company, which is believed to be controlled by Col Muammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal, who is on a sanctions list. It had picked up its cargo in Turkey three months ago.
A Maltese navy ship shadowed the vessel as the boarding took place and followed it until it had left the country’s search and rescue area.
A Nato spokesman on Wednesday night admitted that the vessel was being escorted by a naval patrol into the rebel held port of Benghazi. «We are monitoring the ship and the ship has been hailed and signs indicate it is co-operating with Nato forces as it approaches the shores of Libya,» Col Roland Lavoie, the Nato spokesman said.
«Nato will follow normal procedures and it will be up to the commander of the Nato ship involved to decide whether to board the ship, weather and sea conditions permitting.»
Source: telegraph.co.uk