(Reuters) Idrees Ali - The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Mason on Sunday responded to a distress call from the Central Park, a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals. The U.S. ship, with help from a Japanese navy destroyer and helicopter gunships, demanded that the attackers release the ship. Five armed individuals tried to escape on a fast boat but were chased and eventually surrendered. During the incident, two ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen towards the ships, landing 10 nautical miles away. Central Park, a small chemical tanker carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid, is managed by Zodiac Maritime Ltd., a London-based international ship management company owned by Israel's Ofer family. The vessel has a Turkish captain and a crew of Russian, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Indian, Georgian and Filipino nationals.
2023-11-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive