Iran’s Navy rescues Iranian oil tanker from pirates

Iranian naval forces have rescued an Iranian oil tanker from an attack by a group of pirates approximately 20 nautical miles off Oman’s Masirah Island.

According to Press TV, on Sunday, two pirate speedboats attacked and tried to hijack an Iranian oil tanker but the Iranian Navy intervened and forced the pirates to flee the scene.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008 to safeguard the vessels involved in maritime trade, especially the ships and oil tankers owned or leased by Iran.
The Gulf of Aden, which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, is the quickest route for thousands of vessels traveling annually between Asia, Europe and the Americas.
However, attacks by heavily armed Somali pirates on speedboats have prompted some of the world’s largest shipping firms to switch routes from the Suez Canal and reroute cargo vessels around southern Africa, leading to climbing shipping costs.