Saturday, October 11, 2008
Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, told AFP that pirates boarded the Greek chemical tanker Friday at 1330 GMT.
"Pirates attacked the ship flying a Panama flag using boats," he said.
Choong said the tanker was hijacked in the notorious Gulf of Aden waterway.
On Thursday, pirates attempted to board a WFP ship off Mogadishu, he said, adding the "captain took anti-piracy action and managed to escape."
According to the IMB, 69 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January, 27 were hijacked and 11 are still being held for ransom. Pirates are holding more than 200 crew members.
Choong said IMB had issued a fresh warning to ships to maintain strict anti-piracy watch since the waters off Somalia were too wide for coalition forces to provide security.
"As long as there is no firm deterrent, pirates will continue to attack ships. But the military cannot be everywhere since this is a wide area," he added.
Pirates were now targeting ships on the eastern side of Somalia after concentrating their attacks in the Gulf of Aden.
Source: AFP, Oct 11, 2008