Iraqi official calls ship robberies petty crime
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Thieves and not insurgents were behind unusual robberies of four ships anchored off Iraq's southern coast, an Iraqi intelligence official said Monday, insisting they do not pose a larger threat to commercial traffic in the strategic waters.
The US Navy said Sunday that gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles had boarded four commercial ships in a two-hour time span in the vicinity of an Iraqi oil terminal in the northern Persian Gulf on August 8. The assailants took computers, cell phones and money from crew members before fleeing, according to Lt. John Fage, a spokesman for the Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. (AP)
