Russian ship with attack helicopters heads back for Syria
July 13, 2012 20:00
A Russian ship that tried to supply attack helicopters to the Syrian regime amid the bloodshed was reported to have left its port on Friday with the same controversial cargo aboard.
But there was no immediate indication of whether the Alaed cargo vessel would end up trying to deliver the equipment to Syria directly or drop it off at an intermediate location.
"The Mi-25 helicopters subject for return to Syria after their repair are currently aboard the Alaed, which is sailing from the port in Murmansk to another port in Russia," the Rosoboronexport state arms exporter said in a statement.
A source in the Murmansk port told the Interfax news agency the ship had left yesterday for the port of Baltiysk in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave east of Poland.
The marinetraffic.com website showed the ship's radar signal coming in off the Norwegian coast on its last reporting date on Thursday.
The ship's signal was switched off today and one report citing its owner Femco said the Alaed might in fact be planning to dock in Saint Petersburg toward the end of next week.
The announcement follows Russian official statements that they would to try again to deliver the weapons to President Bashar al-Assad's government, despite calls for Moscow to join an arms embargo against its last Middle East ally.
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