‘Potential hijack’ of ship over, Iran denies involvement
- The British navy said a ship was safe after a possible hijacking in the Gulf of Oman
- Comes days after deadly drone attack on tanker the US, UK and Israel blamed on Iran
The suspected hijacking of a ship in the Gulf of Oman ended and the vessel was safe, a UK maritime security agency said on Wednesday, hours after armed men boarded the Panama-flagged tanker.
“Boarders have left the vessel. Vessel is safe. Incident complete,” United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations tweeted.
The suspected hijacking off the coast of the United Arab Emirates came just days after an attack on a tanker left two dead, which the United States and its allies blamed on Iran.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attempted ship hijack. Earlier, Lloyd’s List reported that armed men had boarded the tanker and ordered it to sail to Iran. Three maritime security sources also told Reuters that Iranian-backed forces were believed to have seized the ship.
And on Tuesday, the UKTMO upgraded its report of the “non-piracy” incident on the unidentified ship 112km (60 miles) east of Fujairah heading towards the Strait of Hormuz to “potential hijack”.
Maritime security analysts at Dryad Global and Aurora Intelligence identified the endangered ship as the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess, an asphalt and bitumen tanker.
The ship was heading towards Iran under the control of armed men with British and US naval operations monitoring the situation, Lloyd’s List said.