Ship no longer carrying attack copters to Syria

Updated at 6:33 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) A ship carrying Russian military attack helicopters was no longer en route to Syria Tuesday after its insurer removed its coverage, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

The Dutch-owned MV Alaed was carrying MI-25 attack helicopters to Syria, Martin reports.

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the ship appears to have turned back. It left from a port on the North Sea, Martin previously reported.

U.K.-based insurer Standard Club said in a statement that it had been made aware that a Russian ship, MV Alaed — then off the Scottish coast — was carrying munitions destined for Syria, in clear breach of its rules.

"We consequently informed the ship owner that their insurance cover ceased automatically in view of the nature of the voyage," it said in a statement.

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Britain's Foreign Office confirmed it was aware that a ship carrying a consignment of refurbished Russian-made attack helicopters was heading to Syria. It said Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague had told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that all defense shipments to Syria must stop.

"We are working closely with international partners to ensure that we are doing all we can to stop the Syrian regime's ability to slaughter civilians being reinforced through assistance from other countries," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The vessel's Russian operator, Femco, refused to comment Tuesday.

Britain has joined the United States and other countries in pressing Russia to halt arms shipments to President Bashar Assad's regime. But maritime experts said the cancellation of the ship's insurance would not necessarily affect its journey.

"Normally it's difficult to trade at a port without insurance cover, but in this case, we are seeing a Russian ship going to a sanctioned country (Syria) that is going to let it in," said James Baker, news editor at maritime newsletter Lloyd's List.

Baker said he believed the ship could reach Syria without having to stop somewhere to refuel.

An article on the website Maritime Bulletin, run by Russian maritime expert Mikhail Voytenko, said revoking the insurance would have little impact, since Russia does not support EU sanctions against weapons shipments to Syria.

The BBC reported Tuesday that the ship was about 50 miles off the Outer Hebrides off the northwest coast of Scotland. The Foreign Office and Standard Club refused to give details of its location.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a harsh reprimand of Russia last week, when she said that Moscow "dramatically" escalated the crisis in Syria by sending attack helicopters there. The State Department acknowledged later the helicopters she accused Moscow of sending were actually refurbished ones already owned by the Assad regime, but Russia was clearly annoyed, and the spat further fueled tensions between the two countries over Syria.

It was not immediately clear whether the helicopters aboard the Alaed were the ones to which Clinton had been referring.

Separately on Tuesday, Syria's government said it was ready to act on a U.N. call to evacuate civilians trapped in the rebellious central city of Homs for more than a week, but blamed rebels for obstructing efforts to get them out.

Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, chief of the U.N. observer mission in the country, has demanded that all warring parties in the conflict allow safe passage for women, children and sick people who need to leave the city and other combat zones.

"[Mood], in person at U.N. Headquarters told the Security Council behind closed doors that the escalating violence and targeted attacks against his observer team, by gunfire and angry crowds continues to take place, forcing him to retrench and suspend the activities of the unarmed observers," a diplomat told CBS News' Pamela Falk, at the U.N., "and another diplomat said that he noted that the use of heavy weapons and artillery at the site of the massacres leaves little doubt about who was responsible."

Activists said shelling and clashes between rebel fighters and troops in Homs continued unabated Tuesday, underlining the difficulty in organizing any sort of evacuation. Fierce shelling was reported on the rebel-held districts of Khaldiyeh and Jouret el-Shayeh and nearby areas. Troops backed by helicopter gunships were also bombarding the town of Rastan, north of Homs, which is controlled by rebels.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reiterated an urgent appeal for world leaders to intervene to stop the shelling that has trapped more than 1,000 families and "the systematic killings that the Syrian people in Homs are being subjected to."

A Syrian Foreign Ministry statement carried by state-run news agency SANA said the government has contacted the U.N. observer mission and local authorities in Homs to start efforts to bring out the trapped civilians.

"But the efforts of the U.N. monitors' mission failed in achieving this goal because of the armed terrorist groups' obstructions," the statement said, claiming that armed groups were using civilians as "human shields."

The Syrian government regularly refers to the rebels as terrorists.

[nonpolitico]

cubscout09: You are undoubtedly correct, the Free Nations undoubtedly have tracking of transports to Syria in hand.
However, the main point of this ship is that Russia, maybe now the insurance industry has declared void the ships insurance now has other aspects of its actions to consider.
It and China vetoed the UN. They were flexing their muscles.
Both Countries have only sparse understanding of democracy and find now that they can "tweak" the tail of UN (And Nato), that they got a response with little cost to themselves.
The USA despite its massive clout is missing a trick.
Totalitarian countries are sensitive to certain criticisms.
The world outcry from UN and others and now the insurance company may still be ignored, but what if the other insurance companies removed their cover from all Russian registered ships?
For, if the Russian ship is indeed still aimed at Syria, International Law will have been brushed aside by a major nation...Russia.
Russia has benefited enormously from free trade since the USSR.
The pragmatists in the System would drop Syria in a second if they thought their interests were at risk.
Similarly, if a UN peacekeeper dies as a result of the Syrian situation, the UN could hold Russia and China responsible and demand compensation for the families of the observers.
For, as all other aspects of life, rights have responsibilities attached.
Russia/China have exercised their Right. But they have to recognise their responsibilities!

[stevex47]

Round one goes to Hillary.

[FerdFerkle]

Someone should have destroyed the ship.

[cbsnews_viewer]

Rub your magic lamp and wish for it to happen. Wait , you would need American made or British made aircraft like hellicopters to do that. When do other countries get to ban what armaments your country can ship?

[SouthernBuckeye]

IT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT WITH RUSSIA SENDING IN WEAPONS AND ATTACK HELICOPTERS TO SYRIA. IT JUST SHOWS THAT RUSSIA IS A COUNTRY THAT LIKES TO HAVE DRAMA. THEY OUGHT TO KNOW THAT IT WOULD TAKE JUST A SNAP OF THE FINGERS AND THE REGIME WOULD BE CORNERED AND READY TO MEET THE DEVIL FOR THE KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS AND CHILDREN. IT'S TIME FOR THE U.S. TO START SENDING IN SOME SUPPLIES TO THE MAIN GROUP OF REBELS. IT IS REALLY SAD TO SEE THE LITTLE COMMUNIST COUNTRY OF RUSSIA SNEEKING IN ARM TO TH SYRIA REGIME. THE SANCTIONS ARE NOT WORKING AS YOU SEE SO STOP PLAYING GAMES, HELP THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA....

[M-Saeed]

Its not only the brittish goverment making money, there are many countries in the EU corporating with russia no1 is france no2 is germany no3 brittan, it based on cheap gas imports. The problem is the mistakes the US and Brittan made in 1930 during WWII supporting the Russian. It shouldnt happen, the result is you will get hit by Russian Nuclear strike in future.When i check the scenario in diffrent points it shows the EU counries are the first losers in Financially and military also, The Nothern line is more testing than the central line.The only choise is they have to obey the Russian instraction to survive. Lets see those dictators in the desert how to figured out in the situation in Syria.

[Mathion]

Not to belabor the obvious, but if a ship has turned OFF its locator tracker, as reported by the BBC, how do they KNOW it turned back?

"Baker said he believed the ship could reach Syria without having to stop somewhere to refuel."

"However, Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers on Tuesday that the vessel had "turned back now apparently toward Russia." That could not be independently verified as the ship appeared to have turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment in the early hours of Monday."

It hasn't turned back. It turned around long enough for the tracker to say it had turned around, they turned it off and turned back to Syria again.

I'll bet on that.

[cubscout09]

Please, examine a map of the North Sea. This is the same region where the Bismark tried to make a run for it. We also sucessfully embargoed ships carrying missiles to Cuba in the 60s. Any number of surveillance techniques are being used to shadow the MV Alead: radar, surface vessels, oil rigs, aircraft, satellites, drones, Los Angeles class attack submarines, and on and on.