Russian ship with helicopters bound for Syria turns back

Ship with helicopters for Syria heads back to Russia

July 15, 2012 04:10 PM
The MarineTraffic.com website that tracks global maritime activity showed the Alaed's radar signal coming in Sunday just north of Denmark following the ship's southern passage along the Norwegian coast.

The ship was shown to be sailing eastward to the Baltic Sea -- in line with suggestions from the owner that it would dock in Saint Petersburg after making a brief port call in the Kaliningrad exclave in the coming days.

Russian officials had earlier suggested that the shipment -- originally also carrying air defence systems that have not been mentioned in more recent reports -- may eventually be delivered to Syria by air..


[link to www.dailystar.com.lb]

July 16, 2012
MOSCOW: A Russian ship that tried to supply attack helicopters to Syria last month before being forced back was on Sunday sighted sailing back home after unexpectedly starting a new voyage.

The privately-chartered Alaed had to return to Russia after its initial attempt to deliver the controversial cargo to President Bashar Al Assad’s regime in June was exposed by the US State Department.

The 9,000-tonne private cargo was forced to turn back when its British insurer ended up pulling coverage.

[link to gulftoday.ae]