Korean Navy Reaches
Tanker Seized Off Somalia
A
South Korean navy destroyer has caught up with a supertanker
hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast. The vessel is laden
with a cargo of crude oil worth as much as one hundred and
seventy million dollars.
The vessel
The South Korean-operated, Singapore-owned Samho Dream, which
can carry more than two million barrels of crude, was seized on
Sunday en route from Iraq to the United States, in the latest
sign that the sea gangs are targeting bigger quarry.
A Nairobi-based maritime group said the tanker had been seized
by Somali pirates and that a pirate source named Mohamed said
the ship was now heading for Haradheere, the port and pirates'
base at which many ships are held during ransom negotiations.
A South Korean official said the destroyer, equipped with
weapons that can hit targets as far as thirty-two kilometers
away and a Lynx combat helicopter on board, was shadowing the
tanker as it headed for East Africa.
The tanker's crew of five South Koreans and nineteen Filipinos
was taken hostage when it was seized in the Indian Ocean, about
one thousand five hundred and sixty kilometers east of the
Somali coast.
Negotiations
A Samho shipping official, who denied reports of contact with
the pirates or negotiations for the release of the crew and the
ship, said attempts to reach the crew have so far been
unsuccessful.
Texas-based refiner Valero Energy Corp said it owned the crude
oil cargo, which was bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Increasingly brazen pirate activity, which has secured millions
of dollars in ransoms, has driven up insurance costs and forced
some ships to go around South Africa instead of through the Suez
Canal.
REUTERS/William/Yinka
