Ship Briefly Grounded in Suez Canal Is Refloated

File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
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Ship Briefly Grounded in Suez Canal Is Refloated

File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

A ship was briefly stuck in the Suez Canal after running aground, before being successfully refloated after an hour and 16 minutes, a shipping agent said.

The ship, which Leth Agencies identified early on Thursday as Xin Hai Tong 23, a 190-metre bulk carrier, was freed by tugboats from the Suez Canal authority.

The Marine Traffic ship tracker and Refinitiv data had shown live updates of the ship, which sails under the Hong Kong flag, as “not under command” near the southern end of the canal, positioned at an angle next to the canal’s eastern side, surrounded by three Egyptian tugboats.

In 2021 the 400-metre, 220,000 tonne container ship Ever Given became lodged in the Suez canal for nearly a week, disrupting trade on a global scale.

The operation to free the Ever Given caused a backlog that delayed the journeys of hundreds of ships, forcing some to take a much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.

Last year tug boats refloated an oil tanker that was briefly stranded in the canal after a technical fault with its rudder, while the breakdown of a container ship caused minor delays in March.



Türkiye Says Over 273,000 Syrian Refugees Have Returned Home

FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
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Türkiye Says Over 273,000 Syrian Refugees Have Returned Home

FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
FILE - Syrian refugee Ahmed al-Kassem and his family drive a truck loaded with their belongings from Türkiye, on the their way back to the family's home in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

More than 273,000 Syrians who fled their country's civil war to neighboring Türkiye have returned home since the fall of president Bashar al-Assad in December, Türkiye's vice-president said Friday.

"The number of people who have voluntarily returned to Syria since December 8, 2024 has exceeded 273,000," Cevdet Yilmaz was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.

Some 2.7 million Syrian refugees are still in Türkiye, according to interior ministry figures released in May.

The Turkish government, which supports Syria's new rulers, is hoping to accelerate the return of refugees to ease tensions generated by their presence in parts of the country.