Sunday night, a team of Navy SEALs assaulted and took control of a hijacked oil tanker at a Libyan port. The three armed hijackers seized the vessel in an attempt to sell the millions of dollars of crude oil on board through the black market. The hijackers were taken into custody and will be turned over to the Libyan government.
According to The Washington Post, a statement issued from the Pentagon stated that SEALs used the USS Roosevelt as a staging platform for the mission, and described the tanker as a “stateless ship” when the SEALs boarded it.
The statement also said that prior to the SEALs’ boarding it, the master of the ship had reported that the vessel had been “boarded by force” and that the “crew was in danger.”
“We don’t want to live in a world where armed individuals or groups are able to seize vessels, threaten people’s lives and sell stolen cargo for their own financial gain,” the statement said. “This was a stateless vessel on the high seas that was not flying under a flag recognized by any nation.”
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