We cover piracy, armed robbery at sea, IUU fishing, maritime cyber security and maritime security issues.
LONDON: Pirates have hijacked an Iraqi ship that was stranded outside the country’s waters and took it to an unknown location, the MP for the Basra governorate said on Sunday.
Kadhim Finjan Al-Hammami said he received “authenticated pleas from the private owner of Iraqi tugboat T-4, to free his ship from pirates.
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Source: arabnews.com
An Islamist insurgency is spilling danger into a major shipping lane, and countries must decide who they want to fix it.
The waters off Mozambique are becoming a major new security hotspot in the Indian Ocean. An Islamist insurrection in northern Mozambique that the government seems powerless to suppress has also increasingly led to disruption in the Mozambique Channel, a key global shipping route. The Quad countries and European partners must help contain the problem before other actors step into a regional vacuum.
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Source: lowyinstitute.org
A large multinational counter-piracy operation has been conducted by the Pakistan-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 in the Gulf of Aden.
Focused Operation (FO) TAHAFFUZ was held from 26 February to 5 March, 2021, and was supported by assets from nine different nations with a shared objective to protect global maritime commerce.
“FO TAHAFFUZ was conducted to support Combined Maritime Forces (CMF)’s overall campaign objectives of deterring suspected pirates from re-commencing their operations in the region,” said Chief of Staff to Commander CTF 151, Captain Adnan Laghari of Pakistan Navy. “Although the FO is now concluded, we still encourage all merchantmen plying through the Gulf of Aden to keep following the Best Management Practice BMP5 guidelines, and using the Internationally Recognized Transit Corridor for their safety.”
In addition to Pakistan Navy, the US Navy, Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, Hellenic Navy, Spanish Navy, and European Union Naval Force Somalia (Operation ATALANTA) all supplied their assets to the operation. The Canadian detachment of Unclassified Remote-Sensing Situational Awareness system also supported the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance effort and contributed Pattern of Life assessments to the task force.
There was also a significant effort from the Djibouti and Yemen Navies and Coast Guards and the Royal Navy of Oman, who contacted merchant vessels sailing through the area, alerting them to the presence of warships through Maritime Awareness Calls.
Finally, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office in Dubai, Marine Operation Centre in Djibouti, Maritime Security Centre – Horn of Africa, Maritime Security Centre at Oman and Joint Maritime Information Coordination Centre in Pakistan all provided additional contributions to the operation, alerting merchant shipping to expect an increase in military activity and ensuring swift sharing of information between all maritime stakeholders.
And the military activity was not just limited to the sea; maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters from both CMF and EUNAVFOR provided overwatch across the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coastline.
“The goal of FO TAHAFFUZ is to show presence, reassure merchant and fishery communities and improve understanding of local Patterns of Life. The FO has significantly enhanced interoperability between regional counter-piracy forces, and hence contributed to build regional counter-piracy capability.” Commodore Abdul Munib of Pakistan Navy, Commander of CTF-151 said.
Through constant cooperation between CMF nations and partners, CTF-151 has for many years helped to maintain the integrity of vital lines of communication and successfully mitigated the risk of piracy in the area of Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin, especially through strategic waterways such as the Bab-el-Mandeb.
The Gulf of Aden is of immense importance to maritime trade as the main shipping lane between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With the monsoon season fading, and sea conditions becoming favourable for sailors, there has been a large increase in the number of small fishing vessels, skiffs and dhows in operation close to the coastlines of neighbouring states.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition said on Tuesday it had destroyed an explosive-laden boat, launched by the terrorist Iran-backed Houthi militias, before an imminent attack off the Yemeni port of Salif.
The coalition added that the Houthis “continue to threaten maritime traffic and international trade.”
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Source: english.aawsat.com
Campaign against ships, using mines, shows an expansion of hostilities in the Mideast
By Gordon Lubold, Benoit Faucon and Felicia Schwartz
WASHINGTON—Israel has targeted at least a dozen vessels bound for Syria and mostly carrying Iranian oil out of concern that petroleum profits are funding extremism in the Middle East, U.S. and regional officials say, in a new front in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Since late 2019, Israel has used weaponry including water mines to strike Iranian vessels or those carrying Iranian cargo as they navigate toward Syria in the Red Sea and in other areas of the region.
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Source: wsj.com
Informed sources in Iran have dismissed the fabricated news of the seizure of a British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, IRIB News Agency reported.
Earlier in the day, certain journalists and observers tracked the movement of the UK-flagged supertanker ‘Pacific Voyager’ in the Persian Gulf, and reported that it has “suspiciously” come to a halt in the middle of the Persian Gulf.
The reports were also dismissed by a United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) official, who told Reuters the oil tanker was “safe and well”.
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