PIRATES have hijacked a Turkish cargo ship and a Malaysian tug boat and attacked three other vessels in the Gulf of Aden in the past week, a global maritime watchdog said today.
The latest incidents came as a European Union naval task force took over from a NATO operation patrolling the pirate-infested seas near the Horn of Africa with six warships and three surveillance planes.
In the first hijacking, pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons boarded a Malaysian tug on Tuesday, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.
The tug with 11 crew on board was heading to Malaysia from the Middle East.
Choong said a Turkish cargo ship was hijacked, also in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, by a gang of pirates who fired automatic weapons from two speed boats.
“They were armed with RPGs. They opened fire at the ship and then boarded it. The ship was heading to Europe from the Middle East,” he said.
“Despite the European Union armada to patrol the Gulf of Aden, the pirates manage to attack and hijack ships because the number of warships is insufficient to secure the vast sea,” he said.
Choong said in three other incidents last week, Somali pirates attempted to hijack a Singapore tanker, an Italian cargo ship and a Greek ship.
Source: NST Online
The latest incidents came as a European Union naval task force took over from a NATO operation patrolling the pirate-infested seas near the Horn of Africa with six warships and three surveillance planes.
In the first hijacking, pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons boarded a Malaysian tug on Tuesday, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.
The tug with 11 crew on board was heading to Malaysia from the Middle East.
Choong said a Turkish cargo ship was hijacked, also in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, by a gang of pirates who fired automatic weapons from two speed boats.
“They were armed with RPGs. They opened fire at the ship and then boarded it. The ship was heading to Europe from the Middle East,” he said.
“Despite the European Union armada to patrol the Gulf of Aden, the pirates manage to attack and hijack ships because the number of warships is insufficient to secure the vast sea,” he said.
Choong said in three other incidents last week, Somali pirates attempted to hijack a Singapore tanker, an Italian cargo ship and a Greek ship.
Source: NST Online
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