European Union and Indian navies take over ship used by pirates off Somalia to seize tanker

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The European Union and Indian navies have taken over a ship used by pirates off the coast of Somalia to seize a Malta-flagged tanker, the EU force said Wednesday.

The Iranian fishing vessel called the Issamohamadi had been abandoned off the coast of Somalia following their seizure last week of the Hellas Aphrodite, which had been carrying a load of gasoline from India to South Africa. The pirates used the Issamohamadi, a type of traditional ship known across the Persian Gulf as a dhow, as a “mother ship” for a series of assaults capped by their taking of the tanker.

A team from the ESPS Victoria, a Spanish frigate, boarded the dhow and said the Issamohamadi's original crew on board were in “good condition, safe and free.” Iran has not acknowledged the seizure of the ship.

The pirate group “operating in the area has been definitely disrupted,” the EU naval force's Operation Atalanta said in a statement. EU forces “have gathered evidence and intelligence of the incident that together with the evidence collected on board Merchant Tanker Hellas Aphrodite, will be submitted to support the legal prosecution of the perpetrators.”

Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011, when 237 attacks were reported. Somali piracy in the region that year cost the world’s economy some $7 billion, with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.

The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols, a strengthening central government in Somalia, and other efforts.

However, Somali pirate attacks have resumed at a greater pace over the last year, in part due to the insecurity caused by Yemen’s Houthi rebels launching attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have signaled they've stopped their attacks as a shaky ceasefire holds in Gaza.

In 2024, there were seven reported incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. So far this year, multiple fishing boats have been seized by Somali pirates. The Hellas Aphrodite represents the first commercial ship seized by pirates off Somalia since May 2024.