The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: News

Media Credit: nasser nasser, AP Saada Abdel Al, center holds her two children Rahma, 4, left and Fouad, 8 months, along with a photo of her slain husband Mohammed Fouad, 27, who is claimed by his family to have been shot and killed by an American cargo ship passing the Suez Canal, at the family house in the city of Suez, Egypt, Tuesday.

SUEZ, Egypt - Dozens of angry mourners buried an Egyptian man Tuesday who they said was killed by shots fired from an American cargo ship contracted to the U.S. Navy as it passed through the Suez Canal.

U.S. officials said American military guards aboard the ship only fired warning shots toward approaching motorboats Monday night and said they had received no report of anyone being killed.

The incident occurred when the merchant ship Global Patriot entered the canal from the Red Sea and was approached by small motorboats that ply the waterway selling goods to passing ships, according to both Egyptian and U.S. accounts of the incident. The Navy has been leery of small boats getting near its warships since al-Qaida suicide attackers rammed an explosives-packed motorboat into the USS Cole off Yemen, killing 17 sailors in 2000. Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet, said cargo ships sailing under contract to the Navy follow the same rules of engagement as American warships in dealing with approaching boats.

"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," the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said in a statement. "One small boat continued to approach the ship and received two sets of warning shots 20-30 yards in front of the bow. All shots were accounted for as they entered the water."

A U.S. Navy security team aboard the ship fired the shots, said Lt. Nathan Christensen, the 5th Fleet's deputy spokesman. The Navy said in a statement that it was investigating, but that initial reports from the ship indicated there were no casualties.

An Egyptian security official at the canal, however, said one man was fatally shot in the small boat and the three other men with him were wounded. The official agreed to discuss the incident only if he was not identified, because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

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