Naval Units Cooperation Disrupts Pirates
Thursday, November 05, 2009
On the morning of November 5th a General Cargo ship and a Bulk Carrier were attacked in the Gulf of Aden. Cooperation between EU NAVFOR and NATO prevented two more hijackings.
Early in the morning, MV Theoforus I, a Panama flagged Bulk Carrier was attacked by pirates using automatic weapons and a Rocket Propelled Grenade. The ship took evasive action until the arrival of a NATO Turkish naval vessel TCG Gediz arrived on the scene. The warship neutralized a suspected skiff in the vicinity of the attack position and weapons and pirate paraphernalia were seized.
A few hours later MV BBC Thames, a Liberian flagged General Cargo Ship, reported being under attack. EU NAVFOR German warship FGS Bremen was immediately tasked to support the Cargo ship and the Bremen’s helicopter was launched. The attackers fled but Bremen found a skiff in the vicinity and on sighting the helicopter the skiff stopped. FGS Bremen conducted a boarding where weapons, ammunition and RPG grenades were found and seized.
FGS Bremen takes part in the EUNAVFOR mission Operation Atalanta. The main tasks of Operation Atalanta are to escort merchant vessels carrying food of the World Food Program (WFP), the protection of vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy.
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