Pirates have returned to the waters off the horn of Africa, hijacking a large commercial vessel Monday. This is the first incident reported in the region since the height of the Somali seizures in 2012, and could be the beginning of a new spate of attacks, after one of the pirates warned "in the coming days we are going to seize even more foreign ships."
The latest assault was carried out on the MT Aris 13, a tanker vessel en route to Mogadishu from Djibouti and owned by a Panama-based company. Various groups monitoring piracy confirmed that eight Sri Lankan crew members were being held captive, with the pirates demanding a ransom for their release.
The attack—and the pirate's warning—will raise fears of the return of widespread piracy on one of the world's busiest shipping routes, which cost companies billions of dollars at the height of attacks in 2011.
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