Indian naval forces together with particular commandos seized a cargo vessel that had been hijacked by Somali pirates, rescuing 17 crew members, a spokesperson for the navy mentioned on Saturday.
The navy mentioned in a submit on social media platform X that each one 35 pirates aboard the ship, the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel Ruen, had surrendered, and the ship had been checked for the presence of unlawful arms, ammunition and contraband.
The Ruen had been hijacked final 12 months and the navy mentioned it had intercepted the vessel on Friday.
The vessel could have been used as the bottom for the takeover of a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia earlier this week, the European Union naval power mentioned.
The hijacking of the Ruen was the primary profitable takeover of a vessel involving Somali pirates since 2017 when a crackdown by worldwide navies stopped a rash of seizures within the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Somali pirates had prompted chaos in necessary world waterways for a decade however had been dormant till a resurgence of assaults beginning late final 12 months.
India deploys not less than a dozen warships east of the Crimson Sea to offer safety in opposition to pirates as Western powers give attention to assaults by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.
No less than 17 incidents of hijacking, tried hijacking and suspicious approaches had been recorded by the Indian Navy since Dec. 1, Indian officers beforehand mentioned.
(Photograph: Indian Navy)
(Photograph: Indian Navy)
(Reuters – Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi and Mrinmay Dey, with M. Sriram; Modifying by Stephen Coates and David Holmes)
