YEMEN MONITOR/Aden/Agencies:
European naval forces have arrested six suspected pirates on Friday after they opened fire on an oil tanker navigating through Aden Gulf, as part of a growing number of pirate attacks originating from Somalia.
The attack on the Crystal Arctic, which flies the Marshall Islands flag, comes as the Houthis in Yemen target ships passing through the vital waterway, the Red Sea, and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. The attacks have led to a slowdown in commercial shipping traffic through the main sea route leading to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
The pirates fired on the Crystal Arctic from a small vessel “armed with weapons and ladders”, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British military-led center that monitors shipping routes in the Middle East.
The pirates first opened fire on the Crystal Arctic, which was defended by a security team on board that responded with gunfire. Hours later, the European Union naval force operating in the region, known as Atalanta Operation, said that a frigate working in the area had arrested six suspected pirates. The frigate detained the pirates due to “the unsafe nature of their vessel” and said that some of them were injured with “varying degrees of severity”.
It is not yet clear whether the injured were hit by gunfire as a result of the exchange of gunfire with Crystal Arctic. The European Union naval force refused to provide further details “due to operational security”.
