Pirates seize Greek tanker off coast of Oman

[February 09, 2011]  ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Pirates seized a Greek-flagged supertanker with 25 crew members off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry said.

The Irene SL was sailing 200 nautical miles (360 kilometers) east of Oman with a cargo of 266,000 tons of crude oil and a crew of seven Greeks, 17 Filipinos and one Georgian when it was attacked, the ministry said. It earlier mistakenly identified one of the crew as Ukrainian. The tanker was sailing from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Mexico. The ministry said authorities had lost contact with the ship since the attack. The Piraeus-based shipping company First Navigation Special Maritime Enterprises confirmed its ship had been attacked by pirates but had no further comment. The Irene SL was the second oil tanker to be attacked in that region in two days. On Tuesday, Somali pirates firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades hijacked an Italian-flagged oil tanker in the Indian Ocean. The tanker had been heading from Sudan to Malaysia. The pirates boarded the MV Savina Caylyn after a sustained attack by a skiff carrying five suspected pirates, the European Union's anti-piracy task force said Tuesday. [Associated Press] Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.