Report: U.S. merchant ship involved in Suez shooting

The U.S. Navy said a cargo ship under charter to the Military Sealift Command that was preparing to transit the Suez Canal Monday night fired warning shots at a small boat approaching the vessel, following multiple warnings to turn away.

The Associated Press reports that one man was killed and two others were wounded in the incident. But Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman with Fifth Fleet Public Affairs in Bahrain, said shots fired by a naval security team struck 20 to 30 meters in front of the boat and entered the water. He added the shots were fired after trying to warn off the boats by radio and with a flare gun.

He said the shots were fired by a Navy protection force on the merchant ship, which typically includes six to 10 sailors.

The AP quoted an anonymous Egyptian navy official as saying a motor boat carrying three Egyptians approached the Global Patriot with the intent of selling products when the ship opened fire on it with tracer bullets, killing Mohammed Fouad and wounding the other two occupants.

A police official in Cairo, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident, adding that some 100 other boat vendors had since gathered near the cargo ship and were demanding an investigation into the shooting.

The ship involved in the incident is Global Patriot, which the Navy said was on short-term time charter to the Military Sealift Command. The vessel is operated by Garden City, N.Y.-based Global Container Lines, which describes the Global Patriot on its Web site as a U.S.-flag multipurpose roll-on/roll-off vessel that trades primarily between the U.S. Gulf, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and East Africa.

Christensen said the Global Patriot had recently delivered a shipment of mine-resistant vehicles from South Africa to Kuwait and was bringing back a load of cargo from Kuwait to the United States when the incident happened at about 8 p.m. last night.

The Navy said the incident is under investigation. Fleet authorities are working cooperatively with Egyptian authorities through the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. 

Source: American Shipper