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About 40 members of a tribe from Iraq’s Basra province helped recover an oil tanker seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and freed its crew in a daring operation.
Sheikh Ali Al-Shaghanbi said on September 25 that members of the Al-Shaghanba tribe from the area Abu al-Khaseeb and the nearby village of Jaykoor organized the operation after the tanker, owned by an Iraqi businessman from the tribe, was boarded while sailing in the Gulf of Aden.
The attackers took control of the vessel, held the crew hostage and demanded a ransom for their release, according to the tribal leader.
Al-Shaghanbi said the tribesmen coordinated tracking and logistics with contacts outside Iraq before moving against the vessel. He said the group stormed the tanker, regained control and released the crew unharmed. Seven armed men were captured, while others escaped.
The tribal leader did not identify the tanker, give the exact location or date of the hijacking, or specify which authorities were involved.
Videos that surfaced online revealed that multiple commercial vessels were involved in the daring maritime operation. The footage also showed the captured pirates locked up in a cage and a dangled from the crane of one of the ships over water.
The reported seizure comes as Somali piracy has returned as a significant maritime security problem in the Gulf of Aden and adjacent waters after years of relative inactivity.
The International Maritime Organization said on August 24 that the hijacking of the tanker SEAMULL four days ealrier had brought the number of vessels being held by pirates to six, with more than 90 seafarers in captivity.
The SEAMULL case was one of the most recent confirmed hijackings in the region. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said six armed people boarded the tanker about 136 nautical miles east of Al Mukalla, Yemen, and redirected it toward Somalia.
Earlier in the year, pirates in the area seized several commercial vessels, including the Honour 25, Sward and Eureka in April and May.
The United States Maritime Administration said in a revised advisory that since March there had been four reported hijackings and 17 boarding or armed-robbery incidents across the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, with 16 attacks involving firearms reported between March and July.
The threat has continued into September. On September 17, the UKMTO reported that a tanker traveling west about 75 nautical miles east of Aden was pursued and approached by a skiff attempting to intercept it. The center advised ships to exercise caution and report suspicious activity.
The renewed piracy comes as commercial shipping in the wider region is already facing heightened risks from the conflict around Yemen and attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Gulf of Aden is a major shipping corridor linking the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, making renewed pirate activity a concern for tanker operators and other commercial vessels using the route.
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