U.S. ship shoots at small boat in Suez Canal

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U.S. ship shoots at small boat in Suez Canal

Egyptian officials say 1 killed; U.S. says no reports of casualties

pdated 11:28 a.m. ET, Tues., March. 25, 2008

CAIRO, Egypt - An American cargo ship under contract to the U.S.

Navy fired warning shots at a small Egyptian boat while passing

through the Suez Canal, the military said Tuesday. Egyptian

authorities said at least one person was killed, but the U.S. said

that while an investigation was under way it had no reports of

casualties.

The Global Patriot, which was under short-term charter to the navy's

Military Sealift Command, entered the canal from the Red Sea at Suez

after dark Monday when it was approached by several small boats,

according to both U.S. and Egyptian officials.

The U.S. Navy is very careful about the activities of small boats

near their vessels since the 2000 suicide attack by an

explosives-packed motor boat on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen killed 17

sailors. A U.S. Navy security team aboard the cargo ship fired the

warning shots, said Lt. Christensen, deputy spokesman for the

U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. He did not know whether the

civilian crew on the ship was also armed.

Warning flare

" The boats were hailed and warned by a native Arabic speaker using a

bullhorn to warn them to turn away. A warning flare was then fired, "

said a statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Cairo. " One small

boat continued to approach the ship and received two sets of warning

shots 20-30 yards in front of the bow. "

The statement added that " all shots were accounted for as they

entered the water. " It also said that " initial reports indicate that

no casualties were sustained on either vessel. "

An Egyptian security official at the canal, however, said that after

the initial warning shots, a man was shot dead in the small boat and

the three other men with him were wounded.

The body of the man, Mohammed Fouad, went to the hospital morgue

before being transferred to the Ibrahim Nafie mosque ahead of

burial, the head of the union of seamen in Suez, Abbas al-Amrikani,

told The Associated Press.

" We are praying over his the body right now, " al-Amrikani said over

audible sounds of prayer. " I saw the body. The bullet entered his

heart and went out the other side. "

The Egyptian government did not immediately issue official comment

on the affair. The state news agency MENA reported an Egyptian was

killed " when an American ship opened fire. "

Small boats selling cigarettes and other products often swarm the

civilian ships moving through the canal. These waterborne merchants

know not to approach military vessels but the Global Patriot looked

like a civilian, said the official, speaking on customary condition

of anonymity.

'Appropriate steps'

" We are very conscious of being in heavily trafficked areas and we

as professional mariners try to keep people from getting too close, "

Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Lydia on told The Associated

Press by phone from Bahrain. " Our team did take the appropriate

steps to take those measured steps to warn the vessels that were

getting too close. "

A U.S. Navy security team was aboard the ship.

on said that the same rules of engagement applied for war

ships as for those under contract.

The Global Patriot is registered to the New York-based Global

Container Lines and, according to the company Web site, the vessel

trades between the United States, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and

the East Africa.

About 7.5 percent of world sea trade passes through the canal, which

at its narrowest is 120 yards wide and is divided into two

65-yard-wide lanes. The canal is a major source of foreign currency

for Egypt.

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