The commercial oil tanker, Morning Glory, which was seized by US forces after it loaded crude at a Libya port held by anti-government rebels has docked back in the capital Tripoli, a Reuters witness said.
US special forces boarded the tanker a week ago off Cyprus, days after it left Es Sider port, which is controlled by rebels who demand more autonomy and oil wealth in defiance of the central government, according to Reuters.
Pakistani captain Mirza Noman Baig showed navy personnel the damage resulting from a fire fight with the Libyan navy before the vessel escaped from Libya. Libyan soldiers removed the crew on a small boat where they huddled in the open in the back on their way to Tripoli port.
“They will be referred to the relevant judicial authorities,” Lieutenant Colonel Salim ash-Shwirf told Reuters. “The 21 and the Libyans are in good health but there are some damages at the tanker.”
The crew declined to give interviews but the family of the captain say armed Libyan rebels boarded the ship, forced them to load crude and to evade the Libyan navy sent to stop them.
The tanker carried no flag. The ship, which had been North Korean-flagged until Pyongyang denied knowledge of the vessel, was due to arrive later at Libya’s Zawiya port, where its cargo of crude will be fed into the Zawiya refinery.
“The crew of the oil tanker is now under my authority and is being investigated,” Libya’s state prosecutor Abdelqadir Radwan told Reuters.
