Why some ships vanish before unloading in the Middle East

ON A RADAR map, the northern mouth of the Suez canal resembles a Bermuda Triangle-sur-Mer: ships have a habit of disappearing. So it was with the , an oil tanker which went through the canal on February 1st and vanished. Two days later it reappeared off the coast of Syria. What happened in the interim is now the focus of an international investigation.Israel believes the was the source of an oil spill that has washed more than 1,000 tonnes of tar onto its Mediterranean beaches (and those of neighbouring Lebanon). The case so far is largely circumstantial. The tanker, which was carrying Iranian oil to Syria, was in the right place to have caused the spill, but it will take time to gather forensic evidence.