Pirates Hijack Tanker in Arabian Sea

Pirates managed to successfully hijack a Liberia-flagged, Greek-owned tanker in the Arabian Sea earlier today. The gang launched the attack from two skiffs, very possibly the same two that (unsuccessfully) attacked a merchant vessel yesterday, during which they fired 300 rounds and seven Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) at their target.

The hijack occurred some 460 nautical miles southeast of Socotra, Yemen, and comes after at least three separate pirate gangs left Somalia’s coast in search of targets last week.

Over the course of this year, pirate success and attack rates have declined significantly. Over the course of the first three months of 2012, pirates launched attacks on 62 vessels (of which 13 resulted in pirates boarding the vessel), as compared with 97 such attacks over the same period in 2011 (of which 18 resulted in hijacks). Local fishing dhows remain attractive targets for pirate gangs, and the majority of this year’s hijacks involve such vessels.

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