Cargo ship hijacked by pirates

Early on Friday pirates attacked and hijacked the general cargo ship MV Susan K 35 nautical miles from the coast of Oman, taking its ten crew hostage.

The European Union Naval Force (EU Navfor) said the ship was attacked and boarded by at least ten armed pirates. The crew locked themselves in the ship’s citadel and requested help, but the pirates managed to enter the citadel and take the crew hostage, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

The MV Susan K flies the Antigua & Barbuda flag, but is German owned. It was on its way to Port Sudan, Sudan, from Mumbai, India. It has ten crew on board, including six Filipino and four Ukrainian sailors.

Pirates hijack Singapore-bound oil tanker

Pirates firing rocket-propelled grenades and small arms hijacked an oil tanker bound for Singapore from Sudan yesterday, the European Union's anti-piracy task force said.

"At approximately 0900 (GMT) on 28 March, the Crude Oil Tanker the MV ZIRKU was pirated approximately 250 nautical miles southeast of Salalah in the eastern part of the Gulf of Aden," EU Navfor said on its website.

It was not immediately clear whether the tanker, which the website said was Kuwaiti-owned, was fully laden with crude. Sudan is an oil-exporting country.

In Kuwait, officials denied the tanker was Kuwaiti-owned.

Captured pirates to face trial in Japan

Pirates captured in a commando raid on a hijacked Japanese oil tanker last Sunday will be transferred to Tokyo in order to face trial. It will be the first time Japan makes use of a 2009 anti-piracy law.

Last Saturday the 57 400 ton tanker MV Guanabara was attacked in the Indian Ocean roughly 400 nautical miles east of Oman, AFP reports. The tanker was heading from the Ukraine to China when it was boarded by pirates, but the crew reportedly managed to hide in a ‘citadel’ or safe room. They issued a distress call on Saturday afternoon, causing ships from the Combined Maritime Force (CMF) anti-piracy effort to sail to their location.