Reuters
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Iranian forces fought Somali
pirates for two days to free a ship hijacked in the Indian Ocean
last week and have arrested all 13 pirates, the semi-official
Fars news agency quoted a navy official as saying on Tuesday.
Armed pirate gangs are making millions of dollars in ransoms
and are able to stay out at sea for long periods using captured
merchant vessels as mother ships. The shipping security crisis
costs world trade billions of dollars each year.
"A ship carrying thousands of tonnes of goods to Iran
was attacked and hijacked on March 26. Pirates wanted to take the ship
to Somalia," Fars quoted Iran's navy commander Habibollah Sayyari as
saying.
"Our forces reached the hijacked ship in the shortest time
possible and after 48 hours of intensive fighting ... they were
able to arrest all the 13 pirates and free the crew," Sayyari
said, adding the vessel was not harmed.
Reuters reported last week that an Iranian bulk carrier of
Brazilian sugar was hijacked in the eastern Indian Ocean with 23
crew on board, but Sayyari did not make clear what the vessel he
was referring to was carrying.
Although NATO, EU and Iranian naval forces are trying to
protect merchant shipping, the Indian Ocean is too big for them
to effectively patrol all of it.
A NATO official said on Monday the hijack success rate for
Somali pirates had dropped sharply in recent months, due in part
to more merchant ships turning to armed security guards, razor
wire and water pumps to protect themselves.
Sayyari said Iran's naval forces would hand in the arrested
pirates to the judiciary.
Iranian media reported in January pirates in the Gulf of
Aden had hijacked an Iranian ship carrying 30,000 tonnes of
petrochemical products to a North African country.