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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
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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.

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Syria Extends the Deadline for a Probe into Coastal Unrest

A man takes a picture with his mobile phone as people gather to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the chemical attack for the first time after the fall of the Assad government in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP)
A man takes a picture with his mobile phone as people gather to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the chemical attack for the first time after the fall of the Assad government in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP)
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Syria Extends the Deadline for a Probe into Coastal Unrest

A man takes a picture with his mobile phone as people gather to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the chemical attack for the first time after the fall of the Assad government in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP)
A man takes a picture with his mobile phone as people gather to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the chemical attack for the first time after the fall of the Assad government in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP)

Syria’s presidency announced on Friday that it would extend a probe into the killings of Alawite civilians in coastal areas that left scores dead after clashes between government forces and armed groups loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks.

The violence erupted on March 6 after Assad loyalists ambushed patrols of the new government, prompting armed groups to launch coordinated assaults on Latakia, Baniyas, and other coastal areas.

The violence brought fear of a renewed civil war and threatened to open an endless cycle of vengeance, driving thousands of Alawites to flee their homes, with an estimated 30,000 seeking refuge in northern Lebanon.

On March 9, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa formed a fact-finding committee and gave it 30 days to report its findings and identify perpetrators. In a decree published late Thursday, Sharaa said the committee had requested more time and was granted a three-month non-renewable extension.

The committee’s spokesperson, Yasser Farhan, said in a statement on Friday that the committee has recorded 41 sites where killings took place, each forming the basis for a separate case and requiring more time to gather evidence. He said some areas remained inaccessible due to time constraints, but that residents had cooperated, despite threats from pro-Assad remnants.

In a report published on April 3, Amnesty International said its probe into the killings concluded that at least 32 of more than 100 people killed in the town of Baniyas were deliberately targeted on sectarian grounds — a potential war crime.

The rights organization welcomed the committee’s formation but stressed it must be independent, properly resourced, and granted full access to burial sites and witnesses to conduct a credible investigation. It also said the committee should be granted “adequate time to complete the investigation.”