Somali pirates kill 5 crew on hijacked tanker before rescue by security forces

⁠Somali pirates ⁠killed five crew members of ⁠the hijacked MT Honour 25 petroleum products tanker before it was rescued by security forces, Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland said on Tuesday.

The deaths aboard the ‌Palau-flagged ship appear to be the first at the hands of Somali pirates in over a decade.

The ship with 17 crew members was seized by pirates in April during a resurgence of Somali piracy that experts have attributed, in ⁠part, to impacts of the Iran war, including elevated oil prices ‌that make tankers more attractive targets.

Puntland police said the MT Honour 25 had 18,500 barrels of oil on board when it was hijacked.

Puntland’s information ministry said in a statement that a rescue mission had ‌successfully freed the ship and captured 16 pirates.

“Before the operation ⁠begun, the ⁠pirates on board the ship killed five of the crew. Among those killed ‌were three from Pakistan, one from Myanmar and one from India,” it said.

Four crew ‌members – three ‌Pakistanis and one Indian – were also injured, the statement ‌said.

The rescue follows another rescue mission last week, when Puntland’s maritime ⁠police force freed the US-sanctioned tanker Sibu 1, which Somali pirates ⁠had hijacked in August.

One pirate was killed, four wounded and 15 captured in the operation, while the 20-strong crew was safely rescued.

However, 28 of 41 pirates arrested in that operation later escaped while being transferred to jail, with several Puntland security officials accusing local police of complicity.

Other hijacked tankers - MT Eureka, and MT Asana - were still being held by pirates, who have moved south towards the port town of Hobyo, part of neighbouring Galmudug state, Puntland officials told Agence France-Presse on Friday.

A previous wave of piracy from 2008 to 2014 disrupted one of the world’s busiest ‌shipping routes, cost the ‌global economy billions of dollars and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.