The mystery of the Alpha Watan ship.. Syria demands an international investigation and the fate of its crew to be revealed

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On Wednesday, the Syrian authorities called on the International Maritime Organization and the Bulgarian authorities to conduct an independent and transparent investigation to reveal the circumstances of the targeting and sinking of the cargo ship “Alpha Watan” in the Black Sea, and to determine the party responsible for it.

An official at the Syrian Ports and Customs Authority said that Damascus is following with great interest the developments in the incident of targeting and sinking of the commercial cargo ship "Alpha Watan", which was attacked at dawn on Tuesday, while it was in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea.

The Director of the International Relations and Cooperation Department at the Authority, Mazen Alloush, explained that preliminary information indicates that the ship’s crew consists of 10 sailors, including 9 Syrians and an Egyptian sailor, and information about their fate is still not available yet.

He also explained that Damascus demanded clarification of the circumstances of the cessation of search and rescue operations before arriving at decisive results regarding the missing sailors, according to what was reported by the Syrian news agency, SANA.

In addition, the Syrian official called for examining all available technical means to access and examine the shipwreck, in order to help determine the causes of the accident and reveal the truth of what happened, stressing the need to continue international and maritime efforts to uncover the fate of the missing sailors, and to inform their families of the available information in a transparent manner, taking into account the humanitarian aspect of the issue and preserving the rights of the crew members and their families.

This came after Bulgaria announced that two commercial ships were attacked by drones in its exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. Bulgarian Prime Minister Roman Radev said that one of the two ships, the "Ebel" registered in Palau, was loaded with wheat and sailing south, while the second ship, "Alpha Watan", flying the Togolese flag, was sailing north.

Note that the ship "Alpha Watan" issued a distress signal after it was attacked, before rescue teams arrived at the accident site. Search teams found an overturned boat and three lifeboats, in addition to life jackets and parts of the ship's equipment, but no crew members were found.

Before the announcement, the Bulgarian authorities announced yesterday the cessation of search operations, after none of the sailors were found.

Therefore, the Syrian sailors are still missing, without an official announcement of their death. The Syrian Seafarers Syndicate had clarified that talk about the absence of survivors does not mean an official announcement of the death of the crew members.

At a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of being behind the attack, Moscow denied this allegation, as the Russian embassy in Bulgaria said that it was not among the targets attacked by the Russian armed forces on the night of October 6.