An Indian Navy ship has thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant vessel with 10 Indian crew in the Gulf of Aden.
An Indian Navy ship has thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant vessel with 10 Indian crew in the Gulf of Aden in which two of the eight Somali sea brigands are feared killed and the rest arrested, Navy sources said on Friday.
The attack on the Norwegian-owned merchant vessel -- MV Maud, flying the Liberian flag -- took place about 225 nautical miles east of Aden around 1300 hours on Thursday, the sources said.
INS Talwar, a guided missile frigate, was escorting a three-vessel group in the international recommended transit corridor in the Gulf of Aden when Maud crew noticed an eight-member pirate gang in a skiff approaching towards it.
The vessel's captain sent a distress signal to Talwar, which rushed a helicopter to ward off the piracy attack.
"There was just about two-mile visibility at that hour due to haze. And that short distance and high speed of the skiff left Talwar with little time to respond," the sources said.
As the helicopter approached the merchant vessel, Navy personnel noticed two of the pirates trying to board the ship after locking a ladder on it. The Navy fired at the two men, who fell into the sea. The duo is feared dead as the Navy personnel did not see them resurfacing.
"We shot at the two pirates boarding the ship and they fell into the sea. We did not notice them resurfacing. We are not sure about their fate," sources said.
Later, Talwar sent its men in a rigid hull inflated boat (RHIB) to the pirate's skiff. The brigands surrendered to the navy, which disarmed them and dumped their fuel. The Navy also recovered a large cache of arms that included AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, a rocket launcher, ammunition, GPS and mobile phones.
The six men on the skiff, which was adrift, were later picked by another foreign warship, navy sources said.
"Yesterday's incident was by far the most dangerous operation that Navy carried out against pirates in the Gulf of Aden, as the pirates were already in the process of boarding the merchant vessel. If they had boarded and taken control of the cargo ship, the curative task would have been more difficult," the sources said.
Since the Navy joined the international anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden last November, it has already busted a pirate mother ship and rescued about half-a-dozen merchant vessels, including those bearing foreign flags.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}