A video available on YouTube purports to showthe 320,000-dwt combination carrier A Whale (built 2010) beingshot at from a small patrol boat.
TheWall Street Journal says Libya’s Navy Special Forces, which acts as the country’scoast guard, posted the video on its Facebook page.
Thedramatic footage shows the naval vessel apparently forcing the OBO to changecourse away from Sidra, where it was thought it would load an unauthorisedshipment of crude oil.
Atone point in the video a man aboard the patrol boat is seen aiming an RPGtoward the port bow of the Liberian-flagged ship, as the naval captain is heardcalling on the tanker to change course.
Theweapon, held by a man on the patrol boat’s unsteady foredeck, was not firedhowever because there appeared to be a problem with the trigger mechanism.
Thenoise of semi-automatic weapons and what appeared to be a single heavy machinegun, punctuated the footage.
A week ago, Libya PrimeMinister Ali Zidan warned that any suspect vessel entering Libyan waters wouldbe fired on without warning.
TheA Whale hit the headlines in May when its crew complained that they had goneunpaid for over three months and were stranded off Egypt.
The twenty-oneseafarers, made up of Indians, Bangladeshis and a Pakistani, claimed they wereowned close to $300,000.
However, it wasn’t until late July that TMT coughedup the outstanding wages and the crew were able to be repatriated home.
