Iran seizes another oil tanker heading to Texas

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Iran’s navy seizes US-bound oil tanker ‘Advantage Sweet’ in international waters in Gulf of Oman – FIFTH vessel they’ve hijacked in two years
  • Iran’s navy seized a Marshall Island-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, according to US officials- the latest in a series of seizures amid greater tensions over Tehran’s growing nuclear aspirations.
  • America’s own maritime military service made the revelation Thursday, while identifying the ship as the Advantage Sweet.
  • Officials said the vessel had been heading to Houston – before it was abruptly hijacked in international waters. The US Navy said in a statement the unlawful seizure was carried out by Iran’s own naval branch.
  • The vessel sent a distress signal at 1.15pm, officials said, while being taken in international waters just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat. The boat disembarked from Kuwait Monday and passed through the Persian Gulf the day before.
  • The US Navy fleet stationed in that area of the world is now demanding the ship’s immediate release, with it being the fifth commercial vessel unlawfully taken by Tehran in the past two years.
  • ‘The Iranian government should immediately release the oil tanker,’ it added.
  • Initially, The Navy had said Iran’s paramilitary seized the vessel, but an American naval aircraft shortly thereafter confirmed Iran’s navy captured the ship.

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Passengers freed from plane hijacked by Gaddafi loyalists

Maltese troops survey a hijacked Libyan Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 on the runway at Malta Airport, December 23,

VALLETTA (Reuters) – All passengers were freed from a hijacked plane in Malta on Friday, but some crew remained on board with hijackers believed to be loyalists of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The aircraft was on an internal flight in Libya on Friday morning when it was diverted to Malta, 500 km (300 miles) north of the Libyan coast, after a man told crew he had a hand grenade.

Initial reports said a hijacker had told crew he was “pro-Gaddafi” and that he was willing to let all passengers leave the Airbus A320 if his demands were met.

It was unclear what the hijackers’ demands were. A Libyan television channel reported that it had spoken by phone with one of them, who described himself as head of a pro-Gaddafi party.

Gaddafi was killed in an uprising in 2011, and Libya has been racked by factional violence since.

Buses were driven onto the tarmac at Malta International Airport to carry away 109 passengers, as well as some of the crew. Television footage showed no signs of struggle or alarm.

After passengers had left the plane, a man briefly appeared at the top of the steps with a plain green flag resembling that of Gaddafi’s now-defunct state.

MP Hadi al-Saghir told Reuters that Abdusalem Mrabit, a fellow member of Libya’s House of Representatives on the plane, had told him the two hijackers were in their mid-20s and were from the Tebu ethnic group in southern Libya.

Troops were positioned a few hundred meters (yards) from the plane as it stood on the tarmac. Several other flights at the airport were canceled or diverted.

A senior Libyan security official told Reuters that when the plane was still in flight on Friday morning the pilot told the control tower at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport it had been hijacked.

“Then they lost communication with him,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The pilot tried very hard to have them land at the correct destination but they refused.”

The aircraft had been flying from Sebha in southwest Libya to Tripoli for state-owned Afriqiyah Airways, a trip that would usually take a little over two hours.

The government of Malta said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had discussed the hijack with Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj by phone, and a negotiating team had been formed and was at the airport. Britain offered Malta help with dealing with the incident.

The last major hijacking on the tiny Mediterranean island was in 1985, when Palestinians took over an Egyptair plane. Egyptian commandos stormed the aircraft and dozens of people were killed.

(Reporting by Chris Scicluna in Valletta, Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli, Ayman al-Warfalli in Benghazi and Aidan Lewis in Tunis; Writing by Andrew Roche; editing by John Stonestreet)