US Navy rescues ship from pirate attack in Gulf of Aden

The US Navy intervened on Sunday to stop the hijacking of a commercial cargo ship by pirates in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, according to US defense officials.

Sailors from the USS Mason, a Navy destroyer, captured the attackers who boarded the Central Park chemical tanker, a senior defense official said.

Zodiac Maritime, the London-based company that manages the ship, said the ship and crew are now safe and unharmed, but gave few details. The ship’s crew had issued a distress call on Sunday reporting they were under attack by pirates as they passed through the Gulf of Aden, about 54 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, according to Zodiac Maritime.

U.S. officials cautioned that much remains unknown about the incident, including whether Iran was involved or if it was an attack unrelated to regional tensions that have increased since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran in the war in Yemen, last week attacked several commercial ships in the Red Sea – a body of water next to the Gulf of Aden – including Central Park.

Officials said it is not clear whether the attackers were the same group that previously tried to take the ship. While the Houthi rebels struck in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, where Central Park was attacked, is far from their area of ​​operations. A US official and a former Pentagon official said Iranian involvement in the operation was under investigation.

U.S. defense officials said the U.S. Navy and other coalition ships responded to the distress call on Sunday. The senior defense official said there had been another piracy attempt against the ship off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea in recent days.

The attackers boarded the ship but were unable to take the crew, who had locked themselves in a safe room.

The Central Park Navy Rescue was previously reported by Jennifer Griffin, a reporter at Fox News.

Zodiac Maritime is controlled by Eyal Ofer, an Israeli-born shipping magnate.

There are 22 crew members on board the Central Park. The crew includes Russian, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Indian, Georgian and Philippine nationals and the ship has a Turkish captain, the company said.

Iran has varying levels of control over a wide variety of proxy groups in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen. The former Pentagon official said that even before the Central Park attack, Pentagon officials and the Biden administration had discussed what more needed to be done to deter Iran from additional attacks on shipping or trade.