A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, November 14, 2014

Did Attackers Lure Egyptian Navy with a False SOS?

Some Egyptian media are reporting that the attack Wednesday on an Egyptian Navy vessel involved the vessel being lured into a trap through a false SOS. (Additional details in the Arabic version of the same story here, which describes the vessel as a "launch" patrolling offshore to protect Egypt's oil and gas reserves in its exclusive economic zone, and that it belonged to the Coast Guard, which in Egypt is part of the Navy. The story did not identify the vessel.

Some radical Islamist websites have identified the vessel as the 6 October, which is the name of an Egyptian patrol craft, but these same dubious sites have tried to portray the incident as a mutiny with the mutineers wanting to join "the Caliphate," but none of these versions come from reliable media, and I prefer not to link and send traffic to Jihadi sites.

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