FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012 file photo, masked Somali pirate Hassan stands near a Taiwanese fishing vessel that washed up on shore after the pirates were paid a ransom and released the crew, in the once-bustling pirate den of Hobyo, Somalia. Pirates have hijacked a different ship, the oil tanker Aris 13, off the coast of Somalia officials and piracy experts said Tuesday, March 14, 2017, in the first hijacking of a large commercial vessel there since 2012. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
Somali pirates released a hijacked oil tanker and its eight Sri Lankan crew on Thursday, a Somali security official and the pirates said, bringing the first hijacking since 2012 to an unusually swift conclusion without the payment of a ransom.
“There has been discussion going on after the gunfight of this afternoon … We took our forces back and thus the pirates went away,” said Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, the director general of the Puntland maritime police force.
A pirate confirmed the release was made without a ransom payment.
