Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Pirates



Greek oil tanker seized by pirates off the Omani coast

A Greek-flagged oil tanker was seized by pirates off the coast of Oman Wed, the vessel's manager said.

The Irene SL, which was transporting 266,000 tonnes of the Kuwaiti crude oil to the Gulf of Mexico, was sailing approximately 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers) off the Omani coast when it came under fire by armed men and then lost contact, the Piraeus-based company said.

It said the ship had a crew of twenty-five, including 7 Greeks, one Georgian and 17 Filipinos.

The seizure of the oil tanker has been confirmed by Greek authorities and the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces.

It's the second oil tanker to be hijacked in 2 days in this piracy-plagued patch of the Indian Ocean, where international naval forces have staged an intensive anti-piracy campaign.

On Tues, armed pirates hijacked a medium-sized Italian-flagged oil tanker and diverted it toward Somalia. The vessel had 22 crew members.

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