Warships rescue merchant vessels in Gulf of
Aden
A NATO warship has prevented a swarm of more than a dozen pirate
boats from hijacking five merchant shipping vessels in the Gulf of
Aden, the alliance said in a statement.
Alerted by a distress call, the Italian navy destroyer put itself
between the ships and a group of pirate "fast boats", with all
vessels using water hoses to repel the pirates.
The Italian warship, Luigi Durand de la Penne, also used its
helicopter against the pirates, dispersing their attack, a NATO
official said.
"This is probably the biggest multiple, coordinated attack we've
seen," the official said, adding that more than 12 pirate boats
were involved, perhaps as many as 20.
"There were so many of them, that it was more important to protect
the motor vessels than to go after these dispersing boats," the
official said, on the sidelines of talks between NATO foreign
ministers in Brussels.
"These attacks are more and more brazen," he said, adding: "The
bottom line is: this is a busy part of the world."
The vessels under threat were the Hambourg Star, flagged out of
Liberia, the Hong Kong registered Overseas Hercules, Iranian
flagged Iran Esteghlal, the
Sea Queen from Singapore, and the Alexander Sibum
flagged in Antigua and Barbuda.
NATO has four ships - from Britain, Greece, Italy and Turkey - on
patrol in the waters off Somalia, with two protecting UN food aid
convoys to the strife-torn Horn of Africa country.
The mission, NATO's first-ever against pirates, is commanded from
Naples, southern Italy. It will end in mid-December when a bigger
European Union operation - dubbed Atalanta - is to be put in
place.
Somalia's Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters have seen around 100
vessels attacked this year. The escalation threatens to choke one
of the world's busiest maritime routes.
- AFP