(Reuters) Libyan naval forces have seized a Sierra Leone-flagged tanker on suspicion of illegally getting into Libyan waters in an try and smuggle gasoline, authorities stated on Saturday.

The vessel, the Captain Khayyam, was stopped in Libyan waters on Friday evening 25 miles northwest of Zuwarah metropolis, and was carrying 1.6 million liters of gasoline, stated Ayoub Qassem, a spokesman for the naval forces allied to Tripoli’s self-declared authorities.

“The tanker was seized due to illegal entrance to Libyan waters without permission,” Qassem stated. He stated extra particulars could be introduced when the tanker was docked in Tripoli.

He stated it was a crusing beneath a Sierre Leone flag with a crew of 9 together with nationals of Turkey, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan, together with one girl.

Five years after the autumn of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has two rival governments every backed by competing armed factions, and a U.N.-backed authorities of nationwide unity that’s making an attempt to carry the edges collectively however faces resistance on the bottom.

Each aspect accuses the opposite of illegally making an attempt to smuggle out oil or bringing in weapons to arm Islamist militants or different combating teams. Tankers and ships are sometimes seized off the coast, and have prior to now been hit with air strikes.

In September, navy forces allied with Tripoli stated that they had captured a Russian-flagged oil tanker and its crew making an attempt to smuggle oil from the port of Zawara. Some of these crew have been launched, others face trial.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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