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Hijackers who briefly seized a vessel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates left the ship on Wednesday, a British navy-linked maritime monitor reported, without elaborating.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a public service linked to the British Royal Navy that monitors security risks for civilian shipping, reported that the “incident,” which it had described as a “non-piracy” potential hijacking on Tuesday night, was now “complete.”
“The vessel is safe,” the group said without providing further details.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attempted ship hijack. Shipping authority Lloyd’s List and maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global had both identified the hijacked vessel as Panama-flagged asphalt tanker Asphalt Princess.
The AIS tracking status of the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess was "Underway Using Engine" early on Wednesday, according to Refinitiv ship tracking data.
“The ship was reported abandoned at 0200 AM on Wednesday and the hijackers ran away,” a shipping executive said.
The vessel had 23 crew members on-board, 21 Indian nationals, one Indonesian and one Sri Lankan. The last port it docked in was Al Basrah in Iraq and it was heading to Karachi port in Pakistan when it was hijacked off UAE's Fujairah coast, the source said.
The ship is heading now to Sohar port in Oman, and should arrive there later on Wednesday at 4pm for maintenance, he added.
Three maritime security sources told Reuters that Iranian-backed forces were believed to have seized the ship.
Britain's Times newspaper also reported that the Asphalt Princess had been hijacked, citing British sources as saying they were “working on the assumption Iranian military or proxies boarded the vessel".
Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran's senior armed forces spokesman, denounced reports of a maritime hijacking as “a kind of psychological warfare and setting the stage for new bouts of adventurism,” the Fars News Agency said.
Earlier, six oil tankers announced at about the same time via their Automatic Identification System trackers that they were “not under command,” according to MarineTraffic.com. That typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer.
“At the same time, if they are in the same vicinity and in the same place, then very rarely that happens,” said Ranjith Raja, an oil and shipping expert with data firm Refinitiv. “Not all the vessels would lose their engines or their capability to steer at the same time.”
One of the vessels later began moving.
An Oman Royal Air Force Airbus C-295MPA, a maritime patrol aircraft, flew in circles for hours over the waters, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.
Britain's Foreign Office was “urgently investigating” the incident, a representative said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price early on Wednesday said the US was “looking into” the incident but that it was too soon to say what had happened.
“We have seen a very disturbing pattern of belligerence from Iran including belligerence in the maritime domain,” Mr Price told reporters. “But when it comes to this specific incident it’s too early to offer any judgment.”
A warning notice advised ships in the area to exercise extreme caution.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a public service linked to the British Royal Navy that monitors security risks for civilian shipping, reported that the “incident,” which it had described as a “non-piracy” potential hijacking on Tuesday night, was now “complete.”
“The vessel is safe,” the group said without providing further details.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attempted ship hijack. Shipping authority Lloyd’s List and maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global had both identified the hijacked vessel as Panama-flagged asphalt tanker Asphalt Princess.
The AIS tracking status of the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess was "Underway Using Engine" early on Wednesday, according to Refinitiv ship tracking data.
“The ship was reported abandoned at 0200 AM on Wednesday and the hijackers ran away,” a shipping executive said.
The vessel had 23 crew members on-board, 21 Indian nationals, one Indonesian and one Sri Lankan. The last port it docked in was Al Basrah in Iraq and it was heading to Karachi port in Pakistan when it was hijacked off UAE's Fujairah coast, the source said.
The ship is heading now to Sohar port in Oman, and should arrive there later on Wednesday at 4pm for maintenance, he added.
Three maritime security sources told Reuters that Iranian-backed forces were believed to have seized the ship.
Britain's Times newspaper also reported that the Asphalt Princess had been hijacked, citing British sources as saying they were “working on the assumption Iranian military or proxies boarded the vessel".
Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran's senior armed forces spokesman, denounced reports of a maritime hijacking as “a kind of psychological warfare and setting the stage for new bouts of adventurism,” the Fars News Agency said.
Earlier, six oil tankers announced at about the same time via their Automatic Identification System trackers that they were “not under command,” according to MarineTraffic.com. That typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer.
“At the same time, if they are in the same vicinity and in the same place, then very rarely that happens,” said Ranjith Raja, an oil and shipping expert with data firm Refinitiv. “Not all the vessels would lose their engines or their capability to steer at the same time.”
One of the vessels later began moving.
An Oman Royal Air Force Airbus C-295MPA, a maritime patrol aircraft, flew in circles for hours over the waters, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.
Britain's Foreign Office was “urgently investigating” the incident, a representative said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price early on Wednesday said the US was “looking into” the incident but that it was too soon to say what had happened.
“We have seen a very disturbing pattern of belligerence from Iran including belligerence in the maritime domain,” Mr Price told reporters. “But when it comes to this specific incident it’s too early to offer any judgment.”
A warning notice advised ships in the area to exercise extreme caution.
