Navy warship repulses attack on cargo ship, nabs 23 pirates

Continuing with its successful run against sea pirates, a Navy warship today drove away a group of sea brigands that attacked a merchant vessel off the Gulf of Aden and apprehended 23 of them.

In a strong display of its prowess in the global fight against the menace of piracy threatening maritime trade near Horn of Africa, Indian Navy’s guided missile destroyer INS Mysore repulsed the pirate attack on Ethiopian flag-bearing MV Gibe that was sailing 150 nautical miles off Aden in Yemen around noon, a Navy spokesperson said here.

This is the fourth offensive against pirates carried out by an Indian Navy ship since November 11, when an Indian and a Saudi merchant vessel came under attack from the outlaws.

The pirates on three speed boats had surrounded MV Gibe and had fired a couple of rounds at the ship with their rifles, when it sent out a distress signal, he said.

INS Mysore, a 6,900-tonne destroyer of the Delhi class, was about 13 nautical miles from the beleaguered cargo ship and it rushed its marine commandos on an helicopter to the merchant vessel.

The Naval commandos launched an attack on the two pirate boats and the outlaws fled from the scene abandoning their effort to hijack the merchant vessel.

Soon after, the naval helicopter chased the speed boats and marine commandos boarded two of them to nab 12 Somali and 11 Yemeni pirates.

They also seized seven AK-47s, one each of 5.76 and 7.62 rifles, a rocket propelled grenade launcher, and 13 fully-loaded magazines of ammunition from the apprehended pirates.