Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has seized a German ship loaded with Iranian weapons
destined for Syria.

Turkish sources said the Turkish Navy intercepted the Atlantic Cruiser
on April 17 in the eastern Mediterranean near the coast of Syria.

The sources said Atlantic Cruiser, owned by Germany’s Bockstiegel and carrying the flags of Antigua and Barbuda, was taken to the Turkish port in Iskenderun for inspection.

“The inspection will take place over the next several days,” a source
said.

The sources said NATO began tracking Atlantic Cruiser since it left
Djibouti for Syria in early April. They said the 6,200-ton vessel, chartered by Ukraine’s White Whale Shipping, was believed to be carrying missiles, rockets and other munitions for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

At one point, the sources said, Atlantic Cruiser shut off its tracking
system in what appeared to be an effort to avoid detection by NATO naval forces. They said the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet joined Germany and Turkey in searching for the vessel.

This marked the first reported interception by the Turkish Navy of a
suspected Iranian weapons shipment to Syria in 2012. In 2011, Ankara stopped
several Iranian aircraft and ground convoys suspected of transporting
weapons to the Assad regime.

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