Pirates Seize Greek Flagged Tanker

Pirates seized a Greek-flagged tanker carrying 266,000 tons of crude oil Wednesday in the North Arabian Sea. The MV Irene SL was en route to Suez, Egypt when it was attacked about 350 nautical miles off the coast of Oman. Contact with the Panamanian owned tanker was lost after it was hijacked.

"We can confirm that the Irene SL has been pirated off the coast of Oman," said a spokeswoman for the Combined Maritime Forces.

“We've got no specific information about who has taken it, but I think it would be reasonable to suspect it was an act of Somali piracy," she said, adding that there have been “no reports of causalities.”

The Irene SL was carrying 25 crew members, including 17 Filipinos, 7 Greeks and 1 Georgian. It is the second tanker to be seized by pirates this week. On Tuesday, the Italian owned MV Savina Caylyn was hijacked in the Indian Ocean about 670 nautical miles east of Socotra Island.

Five assailants in a skiff opened fire on the Savina Caylyn with small arms and grenades before boarding it. None of the tanker’s 22 crew members were injured in the attack.

###

Click here for more World News