Somali pirates seized a Turkish ship with 23 crew members on Wednesday and are being shadowed by a Turkish warship in the Gulf of Aden, a shipping official and NATO spokesman said.The pirates first surrounded the Horizon I in speedboats before boarding the ship, which was carrying sulfate from Saudi Arabia to Jordan, according to Ömer Özgür of Istanbul-based Horizon Shipping.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the ship was continuing on its course with the pirates aboard, with the Turkish navy frigate TCG Gediz following.
NATO spokesman Cmdr. Chris Davies said the Gediz had seen at least four pirates on the deck of the ship, but others may have been out of sight, while the Anatolia news agency reported, citing anonymous sources in an article posted from Ankara, that there were five armed pirates on the ship. There had been no contact with the ship as of Wednesday afternoon, and no ransom request had been conveyed to any party by the pirates, Anatolia also reported.
The ship was taken in the internationally recommended transit corridor, “which is not good news because that’s where ships are meant to be safer,” Davies noted. Warships patrol the corridor, where ships are encouraged to travel in groups to help prevent attack.
Source: AHU – David A-O