[Debate] "Lebanon impounds ship carrying Libyan weapons" sent to FSA

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

If done under the ancien régime to support the wrong guerrillas, the
headline would have been "Libya Exports Terror"!

<http://reut.rs/IseL82>
UPDATE 1-Lebanon impounds ship carrying Libyan weapons
12:29pm EDT
* Lebanon army says seizes arms shipment
* Pictures show weapons crates with Libyan markings
* Owner says unaware ship carried weapons (Adds comments from ship owner)
By Dominic Evans
BEIRUT, April 28 (Reuters) - Lebanese authorities seized a large
consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and
heavy calibre ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean,
the army said on Saturday.
It did not say where the vessel was heading but the ship's owner told
Reuters it was due to unload in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.
The mainly Sunni Muslim city has seen regular protests in support of
the 13-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in
neighbouring Syria, and any arms shipped there could have been
smuggled across the border to anti-Assad rebels.
The army said in a statement the weapons were found in three
containers carried by the Sierra Leone-flagged Letfallah II, which was
impounded along with its 11-man crew and taken to a navy port in
Beirut.
Pictures released by the army showed dozens of crates inside the
containers, some of them filled with belts of heavy ammunition and
rocket-propelled grenades.
Labelling on one box said it contained fragmentation explosives, and
several identified them as coming from Libya.
One was marked "Tripoli/Benghazi SPLAJ", referring to LIbya's formal
name during the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi - the Socialist
People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
Another was stamped Misrata, the Libyan town which formed a base for
rebels who overthrew Gaddafi last year in one of several uprising
which swept the Arab world.
Russia accused Libya in March of arming and training Syrian rebels.
Libya's prime minister said he was unaware of training camps in his
country but repeated Libya's strong support for Syrians "who are
raising their voice asking for freedom".
Syrian authorities have repeatedly said weapons are being smuggled
from neighbouring countries, including Lebanon, to arm rebels fighting
Assad.
Ship owner Mohammad Khafaji said he was told the craft was carrying
engine oil, and was unaware of any weapons. "The law doesn't allow me
to open and inspect the containers," he said by telephone from Egypt.
Khafaji said a broker from Lebanon had made contact, asking originally
for a shipment of 12 containers of "general cargo" to be shipped from
Libya to Lebanon. In the end, after two days' delay, the ship left
with just the three containers, he said.
It sailed to Turkey and then the Egyptian port of Alexandria before
heading for Tripoli in Lebanon, but as it was completing formalities
for docking there the crew was told to take the ship to another port,
Selaata, to unload the cargo.
"After that we lost contact with the crew," he said. (Additional
reporting by Nazih Siddiq in Tripoli; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>