Five Crew Killed as Puntland Forces Retake Hijacked Tanker

Puntland forces retook the hijacked tanker MT Honour 25 on Tuesday after five crew members were killed and four wounded while the Palau-flagged vessel was in pirate hands, authorities said. The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) said three Pakistanis, one Indian and one Myanmar national died, while three Pakistanis and one Indian were wounded. PMPF blamed the pirates for the deaths but gave no details on how or when the killings occurred. The force said its operation freed the tanker within hours and that 21 suspected pirates were captured, with others still being pursued. PMPF's account differs from an earlier report by Pakistan's Express Tribune, which cited surviving crew and the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust saying the sailors were shot as Puntland forces closed in, after an exchange of fire with the gunmen. The newspaper named the Pakistani victims as Kashif Umar, Mahmood Ansari and Rafiullah Khan, the Indian victim as Tanveer, and said the fifth victim was the ship's Myanmar chief engineer. Pirates seized Honour 25 on 21 Apr 2026 while it carried petroleum products toward Mogadishu, with 17 crew aboard, including 10 Pakistanis, according to the EU's Operation Atalanta. Crew and families repeatedly appealed for help during the five-month captivity, citing food and water shortages and illness. The operation followed the recovery of another hijacked tanker, Sibu 1, days earlier, amid a resurgence in piracy off Somalia, with at least 15 attacks recorded by late August, the highest annual total since 2013.