Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with 17 crew including a Sri Lankan that was sailing near the Somali coast, according to multiple security officials who spoke to the BBC.

The ship, Honour 25, was overrun late on Wednesday by six gunmen, when it was approximately 30 nautical miles offshore, the officials said.

Until three years ago piracy had almost disappeared in this stretch of the Indian Ocean once notorious for hijackings, but it has since made a comeback with fishing trawlers or container ships targeted.

The seizure of a tanker headed for the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is likely to increase anxiety in the city where petrol prices have already tripled since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.

It was carrying 18,500 barrels of oil, security officials from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region told the BBC.

The hijacked ship departed the port of Berbera, in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, on 20 February and arrived near the coast of the United Arab Emirates shortly after the conflict began, according to the ShipAtlas website.

The shipping map then shows it circling in the waters close to the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz before turning around on 2 April and making its way towards Mogadishu.

Under the control of the pirates, the vessel, carrying 17 crew - 10 Pakistanis, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan and one from Myanmar, has anchored close to the Somali shore between the fishing towns of Xaafun and Bander Beyla.
Five more armed men have since boarded the Honour 25, sources said.

Officials believe the hijackers set off from a remote area near Bander Beyla. It is unclear how they were able to intercept and take control of the oil tanker.

Neither the Somali authorities nor the European Naval Force, which oversees anti-piracy operations in Somali waters, has release a statement on the hijacking.

Source: BBC
-- Agencies