(ANSAmed) - Mazara del Vallo, August 3 - Two Italian fishing
boats from the Sicilian port town of Mazara del Vallo - the
"Aliseo" and "Anna Madre" - were reportedly attacked by a boat
off Zarzis, in international waters near the border between
Libya and Tunisia.
An Italian Navy helicopter and a Tunisian military vessel
reportedly intervened, persuading the vessel to back off,
according to the president of the Sicilian fishing district,
Giovanni Tumbiolo.
The vessel reportedly belongs to Tunisian Customs
authorities.
The incident occurred on Wednesday night and is allegedly
connected to the so-called local 'fishing war' amid a climate of
tension in the Mediterranean over the Italian mission in Libya
to confront the ongoing migrant crisis.
The vessel reportedly fired shots at both fishing boats that
immediately asked for help.
An Italian military helicopter and a Tunisian Navy vessel
forced the boat to back off.
Giacomo Giacalone, the 28-year-old commander of the Anna
Madre, said Thursday that the vessel came under machine gun
fire.
"At 19.00 a Tunisian boat approached us at high sea,"
Giacalone told ANSA via satellite call.
"Two people on the bow started to fire at us with machine
guns".
Tumbiolo expressed "great appreciation for the joint action
of the Italian foreign ministry and the Italian embassy in
Tunis, as well as the Italian and Tunisian Navy", while sounding
the alarm on the "fishing war that has been going on for over 50
years, endangering the safety of our fishermen" to control
fishing in the area.
Well-informed sources in Rome confirmed the attack, which was
probably carried out by a Tunisian cutter that allegedly wanted
to force the two Italian vessels to dock at a Tunisian port to
check on its fishing activity.
The shots were allegedly fired as a warning, the sources
said.
The helicopter reportedly took off from an Italian Navy
vessel in the area, forcing the Tunisian boat to desist from the
attack and leave.
The same well-informed sources said no Tunisian vessels
intervened to defend the Sicilian boats, which resumed their
activity on Thursday morning south of Lampedusa.
Port authorities in Mazara del Vallo said they are in close
contact with the "Aliseo" and "Anna Madre".(ANSAmed).
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