Pirate attack on US cargo ship thwarted by its security team, but Tehran takes credit

Pirates attacked an American-flagged vessel sailing near the Strait of Hormuz around noon on Wednesday, and a security team aboard the ship thwarted the assault. Iran, however, claimed that its navy came to the US ship’s rescue and repelled the attackers.

Several pirate ships closed in on the Maersk Texas, a 500-foot, 14,000-metric-ton cargo ship and shot at the crew. A firefight between the pirates and the Texas’s security team ensued. AP reported that the pirates eventually abandoned their attack.

The Iranian Revolutionary News Agency claimed that an Iranian warship received the Maersk ship’s SOS and, “due to vigilance and timely reaction,” came to the rescue and scared off the pirates. “Iranian Navy saves US cargo ship from pirates,” the IRNA story blared.

Quoting “the Public Relations Department of Iran’s Navy,” it said that “upon arrival of Iranian forces the pirates who had attacked the American ships aboard some speed boats had to flee the scene.”

A senior marketing director for Maersk Line, Limited, was quoted by the Emirates’ newspaper The National denying IRNA’s report, saying, “The Iranian navy responded to Maersk Texas’s distress signal and provided guidance but was never on scene.”

Lt. Cdr. Mark Hankey, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces, was unable to confirm Iran’s role in the incident. He also cast doubt on whether the event was an act of piracy at all.

“The full facts of the event have yet to be fully ascertained. Piracy has to be judged according to a number of factors. It is not clear from the information available to date whether this was a piracy event,” Hankey said.

Somali pirates have been increasing their range, but attacks near the Strait of Hormuz remain relatively rare.

Hankey declined to say who the attackers might have been if not pirates, though he noted that fishermen and smugglers frequent the area. He did not suggest that the Iranian military, which operates a fleet of small, fast attack craft, might be involved.

The Combined Maritime Forces is a naval partnership including more than two dozen nations that operates in and around the Middle East. It is commanded by a US Navy admiral.

An Australian ship assigned to the multinational force, the HMAS Melbourne, picked up a distress call from the American ship, Hankey said. It dispatched a helicopter to monitor the situation and set a course to assist.

While he was not aware of Iranian aid to the Texas, Hankey said such assistance would not necessarily be out of the ordinary.

“If you hear of a vessel in distress, you do your best to assist” on the high seas, he said. “If the Iranians responded to a mayday call, then that’s perfectly normal activity. … That’s what this whole mayday call is about.”

American ships have occasionally come to the aid of Iranian merchant vessels in similar circumstances.