A tanker loaded illegally with crude from a rebel-held port and intercepted by the US Navy has arrived off Tripoli and its crew detained, Libyan maritime and official sources say.
The official news agency Lana said the 21 crew members of different nationalities and three Libyans on the tanker Morning Glory were handed over to judicial police.
The ship's captain and the three Libyans were being questioned, said the prosecutor-general's spokesman Al-Seddik al-Sour.
After its arrival off the capital early on Sunday, the tanker headed off towards Zawiya port, 50km to the west, a Libyan maritime source said.
The US Navy handed over the Egyptian-owned tanker on Saturday to its Libyan counterparts.
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"We have been assured by the government of Libya that the captain, crew members and Libyan nationals who were aboard the stateless tanker will be treated humanely in accordance with internationally recognised standards of human rights," the US embassy in Tripoli said.
US Navy SEALS captured the Morning Glory off Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean last Monday.
The ship the previous week evaded the Libyan naval off the eastern port of Al-Sidra - controlled by rebels seeking autonomy from Tripoli - after reportedly being loaded with some 234,000 barrels of crude.
The weak Tripoli government's failure to stop the Morning Glory had plunged Libya into one of its biggest crises since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
Its escape after Libyan authorities had repeatedly vowed to take all measures to stop it underscored the weakness of the central government, which has struggled to rein in heavily armed former rebels.
But on Sunday, the Libyan navy's chief of staff, Hassan Boushnak, told reporters that the US intervention had saved the tanker from being bombed.
Rebels pressing for autonomy for Libya's eastern Cyrenaica region - epicentre of the revolt against Gaddafi - have been blockading oil terminals in eastern Libya since July.
That has led to a decline in exports from 1.5 million barrels a day to just 250,000.
