The European Union Naval Force has sent a maritime patrol aircraft to the coast of Somalia to investigate reports that Somali pirates have seized a commercial vessel, a spokeswoman for the force said Tuesday.“The aircraft is en route,” she told DPA. “We don’t know what happened. We are not categorizing it as a piracy incident at this time.”
The spokeswoman said the ship was flagged in Sri Lanka. She was unable to confirm reports that it was carrying fuel to Somalia.
The force known as EU Navfor runs anti-piracy operations in the area, where piracy flourished until security was tightened in 2012.
| Update from Ynet at 7:00 a.m. EDT: |
One official in the semiautonomous state of Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
says the incident occurred on Monday. The official says over two dozen men boarded the merchant ship off Somalia's northern coast. Another official in Puntland says the ship is a Sri Lankan-flagged freighter and is now being moved toward the coast. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
A spokeswoman for the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
Naval Force operation off Somalia, Flt. Lt. Louise Tagg, confirms that an incident involving an oil tanker has occurred off the coast of Somalia and an investigation is underway.
| Another Ynet article adds details: |
The Dubai-owned Aris 13 is believed to be carrying eight crew members, said John Steed of the aid group Oceans Beyond Piracy. Steed, a former British colonel, has worked on piracy for nearly a decade and is in close contact with naval forces tracking the ship.