The pro-Haftar Libyan National Army (LNA), based in the war-torn country's east, announced late Saturday it seized a Turkish vessel and briefly detained several Turkish crew members while the freighter was searched for weapons. "A vessel under the flag of Grenada, with a team of Turkish citizens on board, was detained," the LNA press service said. It was seized "because it entered Libya's territorial waters without prior permission," the LNA spokesman added.

As of early Monday, the ship and its crew were released, according to the AP, amid soaring tensions over a controversial maritime border deal involving Tripoli and Ankara, which both gives Turkey oil and gas exploration rights in waters claimed by Haftar's Benghazi-based administration, and expands military cooperation between Erdogan and the Tripoli GNA government.