Puntland Forces Free Sanctioned Tanker Sibu 1 From Somali Pirates

Somali maritime police in the semi-autonomous Puntland region have freed an oil tanker that was hijacked by pirates in August, a regional force commander said on Friday.

The vessel, the Eritrea-flagged Sibu 1, was boarded on August 20 by six armed individuals, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. Mohamed Jama, a commander in the Puntland Maritime Police Force, said the counter-piracy operation began two days before the announcement and was still under way.

"The ship is free and the pirates are all in the hands of our forces," Jama said.

The tanker had been placed under sanctions by the US Treasury in December, which alleged it formed part of a shadow fleet used to help Iranian petroleum products evade US sanctions.

The seizure is part of a renewed wave of piracy off Somalia's coast. According to International Maritime Bureau data and UKMTO reports, Sibu 1 was at least the 13th vessel attacked this year off Somalia or in the Gulf of Aden, which separates Somalia and Yemen.

Between 2008 and 2014, a surge in Somali piracy triggered a security crisis in the western Indian Ocean, costing the global economy billions of dollars and leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.