Masked men claim Thursday’s attack on naval ship in YouTube video

A group of unidentified masked men claimed responsibility for an attack on a naval ship in the coastal city of Damietta yesterday in a video published on YouTube Friday morning.

The assault injured five crew members, while eight others are still unaccounted for, according to a statement issued by Armed Forces spokesperson Mohamed Samir on Thursday. In the statement, he referred to the assailants as “enemy forces,” but did not indicate if the incident was believed to be a terrorist attack.

With a black flag hanging in the background, the five men identified themselves as “youth from the land of Kenanah,” a Quranic expression referring to Egypt. They directly addressed the Armed Forces, accusing the military of waging war against Islam.

“All of your movements are well-monitored and studied,” one of the men warned in the video.

They had kidnapped an entire naval unit from the ship during the attack, and would use them as hostages in negotiations to release political prisoners, the man continued.

The video contradicts Thursday’s official statement, in which Samir claimed that the four boats that had attacked the navy vessel were all destroyed, and 32 assailants had been arrested.

However, the families of those detained decried the arrests, asserting that their relatives had no role in the attack in a video published on the privately owned Masr al-Arabiya news site.

At least 21 men arrested in relation to the incident were fishermen who had gone out on a fishing expedition nine days ago, and had no connection whatsoever to Thursday’s violent events, the families insisted. Another woman in the video claimed that her father had been randomly arrested by the army.

A fisherman close to the detained men spoke in the video, alleging that his colleagues were not armed and were not involved in any unlawful activities.