Israeli naval units captured an arms-laden freighter and took into custody six Palestinian terrorists and its five-man crew, a military spokesman disclosed today. The spokesman said the 500 ton Cypriot-registered vessel Stefanie was seized at sea several days ago while apparently transporting the terrorists on a sabotage mission to Israel.
According to Israeli sources, the ship is owned by EI Fatan, the terrorist arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The terrorists confessed to membership in EI Farah and said their mission was organized by terrorist reader Abou-Gihad. Captured documents in Arabic, English and Hebrew confirmed this, the sources said.
The ship carried an arsenal of three Kalachnikof rifles, several American-made M-16 rifles, machineguns, rocket launchers, American-made shoulder rocket-launchers, explosives and a variety of uniforms. Security sources said this was the latest in a series of attempts to land terrorists in Israel by sea, all of which have been foiled. They did not disclose where the Stefanie was seized.
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