Seized tanker anchors off Somalia
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A huge Saudi oil tanker hijacked in the Indian Ocean on Saturday is believed to have anchored off the coast of Somalia, its operators have said.
Vela International said that all 25 crew were said to be safe.
The Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever hijacked, with a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - worth more than $100m.
Pirates attacked a Hong Kong cargo vessel early on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said. Chinese media said the ship, with a crew of 25, was carrying wheat intended for Iran.
The other vessel, a fishing boat registered in Kiribati, was carrying a crew of 12, the IMB said. Its owners lost contact with it on Tuesday morning.
Pirates in the area now hold more than 90 vessels, the IMB says.
The Sirius Star was seized on Saturday off the Kenyan coast in what the US Navy called an "unprecedented" attack.
A statement issued by Vela said the company believed the ship had anchored, adding: "At this time, Vela is awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel."
An official from the northern breakaway Somali Puntland region told AFP news agency that the ship had anchored off the port of Harardhere. The report could not be confirmed.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister condemned the hijacking as "an outrageous act".
Prince Saud Al-Faisal said the international community needed to fight piracy.
Speaking during a visit to Athens, he compared piracy to terrorism describing it is "a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together".
The prince gave no indication of what action, if any, Saudi Arabia intended to take over the hijacking.
Nato said it had no plans to divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden. And the US Navy's 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the oil tanker.
Poland's foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that the ship's captain is one of two Poles on board the vessel.
"The other is a technical officer," said spokesman Piotr Paszkowski.
Somalis on shore spoke of their surprise at seeing the huge vessel pass just off the coast.
"I headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles (5km) off the shore," said fisherman Abdinur Haji.
"I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one," he said.
Vela International said a response team had been mobilised to work towards ensuring the safe release of vessel and crew.
Vela said the crew consisted of two British, two Polish, one Croatian, one Saudi and 19 Philippine nationals.
The hijacking - 450 nautical miles (830km) off the Kenyan coast - was highly unusual in terms of the size of the ship, says BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.
The seizure points to the inability of a multi-national naval task force sent to the region earlier this year to stop Somali piracy, he says.
US Navy Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the pirates involved were well trained.
"Once they get to a point where they can board, it becomes very difficult to get them off, because, clearly, now they hold hostages," he told a Pentagon briefing in Washington.