Iranian naval forces have thwarted a pirate attack targeting one of the country’s oil tankers while underway in the Bab-el-Mandeb strait.
The attack took place yesterday morning and involved four pirate boats, with 32 armed pirates onboard, Iran’s ISNA news agency reports. Iran’s naval fleet saved the oil tanker after the ship’s crew barely repelled the attack, ISNA said.
The attack comes just a few days after a similar attack occurred in the strait when a group, of what the Iranian navy dubbed as Gulf of Aden pirates, tried to board an Iranian oil tanker.
The pirates in two speedboats followed the tanker on March 20th and managed to force the ship to stop. However, the Iranian navy fleet was rushed to the scene and managed to scare off the pirates after several hours of heavy clashes, according to Tasnim news agency.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.