Suspected pirate attack in Gulf of Aden raises concerns about growing Somali piracy

A European naval force detained six suspected pirates on Friday after they opened fire on an oil tanker traveling through the Gulf of Aden, officials said, likely part of a growing number of piracy attacks emanating from Somalia. The attack on the Marshall Islands-flagged Chrystal Arctic comes as Houthis have also been attacking ships traveling through the crucial waterway, the Red Sea, and the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait connecting them.

The assaults have slowed commercial traffic through the key maritime route onward to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.

The pirates shot at the tanker from a small ship “carrying weapons and ladders,” according to the British military’s UK

Maritime Trade Operations Center, which oversees Mideast shipping routes.

The pirates opened fire first at the Chrystal Arctic, whose armed onboard security team returned fire at them, the UKMTO said.

The pirates then abandoned their attempt to take the tanker, which continued on its way with all its crew safe, the UKMTO said. Hours later, the EU naval force in the region known as Operation Atalanta said a frigate operating in the region detained six suspected pirates.

The frigate seized the pirates, given “the unsafe condition of their skiff ” and said that some had “injuries of varied severity.”

It was not immediately clear if those injured suffered gunshot wounds from the exchange of fire with the Chrystal Arctic.

The EU force declined to elaborate “due to the security of the operations.”

Once-rampant piracy off the Somali coast diminished after a peak in 2011. That year, there were 237 reported attacks in waters off Somalia.