Somali pirates kill 5 crew on tanker before rescue
Photo: REUTERS
Somali pirates killed five crew members on board a Palau-flagged oil tanker, the MT Honour 25, off the coast of Somalia before security forces rescued the vessel, Somali authorities announced on Tuesday.
Officials said these fatalities as the first deaths at the hands of Somali pirates in more than a decade, occurring amid a piracy resurgence that experts link in part to the impact of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran. Pirates seized the MT Honour 25, which carried 18,500 barrels of oil, off Somalia on 21 April.
A rescue mission freed the ship and captured 16 suspected pirates, according to a statement from the Information Ministry of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia.
The statement said, “Before the operation began, the pirates on board the ship killed five of the crew. Among those killed were three from Pakistan, one from Myanmar and one from India.”
The attack also injured four other crew members, including three Pakistanis and one Indian. In a social media post, the Puntland Maritime Police Force confirmed that the vessel was “safe” and under the government’s control, while officers continue efforts to find others involved in the hijacking.
This operation follows another rescue last week in which maritime police freed the Sibu 1, a US-sanctioned tanker that Somali pirates had hijacked in August. However, 28 of the 41 pirates arrested during that operation later escaped while being transferred to jail, prompting several Puntland security officials to accuse local police of complicity.
Officials reported that attackers have carried out at least 15 attacks off Somalia since April. A previous wave of piracy between 2008 and 2014 disrupted one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, costing the global economy billions of dollars and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.
Source: Al Jazeera (adapted)
