2023-11-27T17:45:58+00:00
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/ The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced on Monday that an attempt to hijack a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday was apparently carried out by Somali pirates, not the Yemeni Houthis.
Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said, “We are continuing to evaluate, but initial indications indicate that these five individuals are Somali.”
“It is clear that the incident is linked to piracy,” Ryder added.
A US Navy warship responded to a distress call on Sunday from the commercial tanker Central Park, which was seized by gunmen while it was transporting a shipment of phosphoric acid.
Phosphoric acid is often used in the manufacture of fertilizers.
The US military said that the attackers were transferred on the US warship “Mason”, and that the “Central Park” and its crew were safe.
The US Army had indicated in a previous statement that the ship “Mason”, with the support of allied ships, demanded that the attackers release the commercial ship.
Five of the militants tried to escape on a speedboat, but the warship chased them until they finally surrendered.
The statement added that two ballistic missiles were launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen towards the ships Maysoon and Central Park, but they landed ten nautical miles away from them, and did not cause injuries or damage.
The incident involving the chemical tanker is the latest in a series of attacks on ships in the Middle East since the outbreak of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) last month.
It also comes on the heels of the Yemeni Houthis, who are allied with Iran, seizing an Israel-linked cargo ship in the southern Red Sea last week.
The Houthi group pledged to target more Israeli ships. It had also launched ballistic missiles and armed drones at Israel.
LSEG data show that the small oil tanker Central Park (19,998 tons) is operated by Zodiac Maritime Limited, owned by the Israeli Ofer family, an international ship management company based in London. The tanker was built in 2015, flies the Liberian flag and is owned by Klomviz Shipping Company.
Zodiac Maritime Limited said in a statement that Central Park was subjected to a suspected piracy incident while sailing in international waters, about 54 nautical miles off Somalia.
The statement added, “Our priority is the safety of our 22 crew on board the tanker. The ship, led by a Turkish captain, has a multinational crew consisting of Russians, Vietnamese, Bulgarians, Indians, Georgians, and Filipinos.”