U.S. Seizes Iraqi Ship : No Shots Fired as Vessel Carrying Tea Is Boarded

An armed boarding party from a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Oman seized an Iraqi cargo ship headed for Iraq with a load of tea today and steered it toward the Omani port of Muscat, defense officials said.

No shots were fired and no resistance was offered, Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said, in what is the first seizure in the U.S. intercept operation that began Aug. 17 to enforce the U.N. embargo against Iraqi goods.

Williams said the Iraqi-owned vessel, the Zanoobia, “reported it was bound for the Iraqi port of Basra with a cargo of tea when it was intercepted by the guided-missile destroyer USS Goldsborough” about 6:30 a.m. local time.

“The decision to board the ship was made after it refused orders from the Goldsborough to either return to its port of origin or to divert to a non-Iraqi port,” Williams said.

“The team boarded the Zanoobia without meeting resistance and will stay aboard the ship until it reaches its new destination,” he said, declining to identify the port where the ship was headed and where it originated.

However, defense officials who asked not to be identified said that the ship had departed Sri Lanka, where it loaded up on tea, and that U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel were taking it to Oman’s port of Muscat.

At Port Newark, N.J., the Customs Service detained a Kuwaiti container ship and was examining the cargo today to see if anything was destined for Iraq, officials said.

The ship Al Wattyah was ordered held Monday evening, said Neil Pitagno, a Customs agent based in Newark.

“The vessel has not been seized; it has been detained,” Pitagno said. “There are a number of containers aboard that we are interested in.”

President Bush has decided to ask Congress to forgive Egypt’s entire $7-billion military debt because of its leadership in standing up to Iraqi aggression, the White House announced today.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said forgiving the debt “recognizes the strategic importance of Egypt” in the multinational effort to enforce the trade embargo against Baghdad.

“It is a symbol of our appreciation” for the role played by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Fitzwater said.

Dozens of Westerners trickled out of Iraq into Jordan today, and a convoy of foreigners set out into the scorching desert heat in an effort to go home. But hopes for any large-scale departure remained dim.