STUTTGART, Germany — A team of U.S. Navy SEALs seized control early Monday of a commercial tanker that was hijacked in the Mediterranean earlier this month by a small group of armed Libyan men, the Defense Department announced.
The SEALs, acting under an order from President Barack Obama, embarked from the USS Roosevelt, which is deployed to the Mediterranean as part of the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group.
“No one was hurt tonight when U.S. forces, at the request of both the Libyan and Cypriot governments, boarded and took control of the commercial tanker Morning Glory, a stateless vessel seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans,” DOD spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a news release.
The boarding operation was conducted about 3 a.m. Central European Time in international waters southeast of Cyprus. The SEALS were attached to Special Operations Command Europe, based out of Stuttgart.
The USS Roosevelt provided helicopter support and served as a command and control and support platform for the other members of the force assigned to conduct the mission, Kirby said.
The Morning Glory is carrying oil owned by the Libyan government National Oil Company. The ship and its cargo were illicitly obtained from the Libyan port of As-Sidra.
The Morning Glory is bound for Libya along with a team of sailors from the USS Stout. The sailors will be supervising the transit, Kirby said.
The USS Roosevelt is homeported in Mayport, Fla., and the USS Stout is homeported in Norfolk, Va.
The Bush Carrier Strike Group and its 6,000 sailors departed Norfolk, Va., last month on what is only the carrier’s second deployment. Four ships and eight aircraft squadrons are accompanying the Bush to the U.S. 6th Fleet and 5th Fleet areas of responsibility as part of the carrier strike group.
The USS George H.W. Bush will remain in the Mediterranean Sea for several days longer than planned as part of a U.S. effort to reassure allies on edge over Russia’s incursion into Ukraine’s Crimean region, the DOD said last week.
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