Tag: pirates release vessel

After stealing some of the cargo West African pirates have freed a gasoline tanker they hijacked last week, after stealing some of the cargo, the shipowner said on Friday, in a fresh example of a growing trend in the region to hold vessels briefly to offload valuable oil products.Nick Fell, a spokesman for BW Maritime, said the company thought the tanker BW Rhine had been taken for the gasoline it was carrying, which was worth millions of dollars."We believe that was the purpose. Some of the cargo has been stolen," Fell told Reuters.All 24 crew members were heading for safety, Fell said.The hijacking appears typical of a pattern developing off West Africa. At least 16 such incidents have been reported along the coastline from Togo to Nigeria, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre."The duration tends to be 5-10 days, and the main reason is to steal the cargo," said Cyrus Mody, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau.Fell said the BW Rhine and its crew were headed for safety at a nearby port but declined to specify the location or say whether any of them had been harmed.The BW Rhine was seized from anchorage off Lome, ...

Sixteen suspected pirates have been arrested The Danish navy said Thursday it had stopped a pirate ship off the Somali coast, rescuing 12 Iranian and Pakistani hostages and arresting their 16 captors."The Danish warship Absalon yesterday (Wednesday) stopped a pirate mother-ship. Sixteen suspected pirates have been arrested. Twelve hostages from Pakistan and Iran have been rescued," the navy said in a statement.The navy said no one was injured in the operation off the east coast of Somalia and that the Absalon, a command and support ship which is part of a NATO-led counter-piracy mission, had not needed to use armed force."Onboard the mother-ship, Absalon found 16 suspected pirates, who are now being held on Absalon. In addition, 12 people from Pakistan and Iran, who were being held captive on the pirate mother ship for a month, were there," the statement said."The rescued hostages have provided witness testimony onboard the Absalon and have now sailed home," it said, adding: "Danish authorities will now investigate whether there is a possibility to prosecute the suspected pirates. At the end of February, the Absalon stopped another pirate mother-ship, freeing 16 Pakistani and Iranian hostages and capturing 17 pirates, but that operation was not as ...

MV Leila Reported Released by Somali Pirates Somali pirates have released a Panama-flagged vessel they seized two months ago allowing it to continue on its way to the breakaway enclave of Somaliland, the ship's agent and a government official said on Thursday.Pirates hijacked the MV Leila in February near Oman, seizing the ship with its cargo of goods and cars, and then sailing it to the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in Somalia.The vessel was en route to Somaliland at the time and the pirates said they would impound it until fellow pirates being held in the enclave's jails were released.On Thursday, Mohamed Osman, the head of Somaliland's anti-piracy task force, told Reuters the ship had been released."I have spoken to Omar Apocar, Deputy Manager of the Port of Berbera, who has confirmed to me that the ship has been released in Bosasso and will most probably anchor in Berbera tonight," he said, referring to Somaliland's port city.Ahmed Farah Mohamed, the ship's Somali agent in Berbera, told Reuters the release took place when a ransom was paid after talks among local elders, businessmen and shipping agents."It took almost a month of negotiations by a committee of seven people ... and a ...

Iranian forces fought Somali pirates for two days Iranian forces fought Somali pirates for two days to free a ship hijacked in the Indian Ocean last week and have arrested all 13 pirates, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted a navy official as saying on Tuesday.Armed pirate gangs are making millions of dollars in ransoms and are able to stay out at sea for long periods using captured merchant vessels as mother ships. The shipping security crisis costs world trade billions of dollars each year."A ship carrying thousands of tonnes of goods to Iran was attacked and hijacked on March 26. Pirates wanted to take the ship to Somalia," Fars quoted Iran's navy commander Habibollah Sayyari as saying."Our forces reached the hijacked ship in the shortest time possible and after 48 hours of intensive fighting ... they were able to arrest all the 13 pirates and free the crew," Sayyari said, adding the vessel was not harmed.Reuters reported last week that an Iranian bulk carrier of Brazilian sugar was hijacked in the eastern Indian Ocean with 23 crew on board, but Sayyari did not make clear what the vessel he was referring to was carrying.Although NATO, EU and Iranian naval ...

MV Eglantine , with 23 crew members on board, has been released Somali pirates have released an Iranian bulk carrier after a week, a British naval official based in Dubai said yesterday.The MV Eglantine, a Bolivian-flagged ship with 23 crew members was seized on March 26 off the south-western coast of India.Hijacking this year has spread further east as the waters grow calmer, allowing pirates to travel further from Somalia, said James Cohen, a commander in the British Royal Navy and officer in charge of the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) based in Dubai.The seasonal trend continues until late June or early July, after which monsoons make the sea more difficult for piracy.The UKMTO liaises with commercial vessels travelling through waters at risk of Somali piracy and with navies running counter-piracy patrols.In February, a hijacking took place off the coast of Oman, and in January, pirates struck in the Bab El Mandeb strait between Yemen and Djibouti.Four of eight ships being held by Somali pirates belong to companies based in the UAE. Local companies also own two of the three ships that have been held the longest.The MV Iceberg 1 was captured in March 2010 and a crew member has ...

After they agreed on a payment of $2.85 million Somali pirates, who hijacked the ship MV Albedo with 22 crew members onboard, have agreed to release it against a payment of $2.85 million, part of expenses incurred by them on the hostages and for the upkeep of the Malaysian-flagged cargo vessel. The deadline for the payment is set as April 20."The agreement was reached on Wednesday morning after night-long negotiations. We are not paying any ransom, just part of the expenses. That's why it took us nearly 18 months to reach a deal," chief negotiator Ahmed Chinoy, Chairman of Citizens-Police Liaison Committee in Karachi, Pakistan, told Khaleej Times in Dubai after the deal was made."The pirates had reached a point of fatigue. They were looking for an exit and the payment of part expenses was the only way," he said. He said that the pirates claimed total expenses were $4 million but agreed on $2.85 million.The negotiations were held via video link and satellite phone between Chinoy and Dubai-based Somali businessmen taking part from Dubai and the Somali tribal elders and the leaders of the Somali pirates from Somalia. The Malaysian owner had authorised Chinoy to represent him. The first ...

Conflicting Reports on The Successful Rescue of Al-Khaliil and Crew Somalia Report has been monitoring the alleged release of the Iranian Dow Al-khaliil, after the owners claimed that the pirates had hijacked a new vessel and released the Al-Khaliil and its crew.Latest sources told Somalia Report that the pirates have not hijacked a new vessel, but that international Navies rescued the fishing Dow and seized the pirates."Finally we confirmed that the pirates have not hijacked any vessel. The captain of Al-Khaliil contacted us again and we asked more question, he told us that the truth is that international navies rescued the fishing Dow and seized the pirates," said, Liibaan Dheere a well known businessman and representative of the Owner's Association in Somalia.A number of our sources among the pirates could not confirm the hijacking of any vessel.Somali pirates released the Iranian fishing dhow, the al-Khaliil, on Tuesday morning that they had been using as a mothership for the last nine days. Sources added that pirates released the al-Khaliil and its 19 crews (all Iranian) without any ransom paid.Earlier reports had claimed the successful hijacking of a new vessel which the pirates had opted to use as a mother ship.On January ...

For Shipping companies and management companies operating in India On January 12, the release of a chemical tanker 'Fairchem Bogey' by Somali pirates after five months in captivity has brought cheers to Indian shipping. The ship, which was seized on August 20, while on anchorage within the Salalah port limit in Oman and waiting for berthing instructions from port authorities, had an Indian crew of 21 on board.As per local reports, pirates released the ship for a ransom estimated at $8 million (around Rs 40 crore). The ransom, as per industry estimates, may be on a higher side, given that the tanker is carrying just a partial load of methanol. But it was a small price they paid for releasing 21 Indians on board.Another ship 'Savina Caylyn', with 17 Indian crew, hijacked on February 8, 2011, was released on December 22. All crew members have now arrived in India.With the release of these two ships, total number of Indian crew in custody of Somali pirates on different ships has come down by more than half to 22, from the earlier 60. As per a recent communiqué by India's shipping regulator -- director general of shipping, six Indians are still on ...

Freed sailors from MV Fairchem Bogey MV Fairchem Bogey, a 26,350 deadweight tonnage (DWT) Indian chemical tanker that was freed by Somali pirates on January 12, for an estimated ransom of $8 million after five months of captivity, docked at Salalah Port on Tuesday night. According to sources in Salalah, the freed sailors would be flown to Muscat today. "The freed sailors will board a flight from Salalah at 5:30am and reach Muscat at around 7am. From Muscat, they will be flown to Mumbai on a 10:45am flight," sources added.The chemical tanker was hijacked within the limits of Salalah Port on August 20 last year. The vessel, manned by a crew of 21 Indians, was waiting for berthing instructions near Salalah Port when it was hijacked by the pirates. It vessel was on its way to China from Saudi Arabia. It had anchored near Salalah Port to load methanol after discharging at Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia. "We are delighted to see our entire crew safe and soon to be re-united with their families," Peter Cremers, CEO of Anglo-Eastern Group, which owns the vessel, told Times of Oman."Once the agreement to release the vessel had been reached, the vessel was ...

After the payment of a $4 million ransom Somali pirates have freed the 18-man crew of a Maltese-flagged chemical tanker after the payment of a $4 million ransom, the maritime editor of the Somalia Report said on Monday.Andrew Mwangura, an authoritative source on piracy, said the crew - three Turks and 15 Georgians - sailed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa in a tugboat after their release last week, while the tanker, the MV Olib G, was abandoned off the Somali coast.The Greek-owned and -operated chemical tanker was seized in the Gulf of Aden while on its last trip before the scrapyard, according to Mwangura, a former regional maritime official.The seas off Somalia have been plagued by piracy in recent years as Somali gangs have exploited 20 years of lawlessness in their Horn of Africa country by seizing vessels and demanding huge ransoms for them and their crews.Kenya's military says piracy has become less frequent since it sent forces into neighbouring Somalia last October to fight al Shabaab rebels and stationed its navy off its southern coast.Source: Reuters