Dutch warship holds 13 suspected Somali pirates after failed attack

Dec 3, 2009, 11:40 GMT

Nairobi/London - A Dutch warship was Thursday holding thirteen suspected Somali pirates after a failed attempt by the pirates to hijack a cargo ship off the coast of Oman.

The incident was the latest in a series of attacks as piracy off Somalia continues to ramp up in the months following monsoon season, and came days after a massive Greek oil tanker was seized.

The European Union's anti-piracy task force EU NAVFOR said pirates on Wednesday failed to board the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV BBC Togo - which was protected by barbed wire - despite firing automatic weapons.

Later Wednesday, several hundred kilometres south of the Omani port town of Salalah, a Dutch ship, the Evertsen, part of the EU's anti-piracy operation Atalanta, located a dhow with two skiffs that fit the description of the attackers.

A boarding team apprehended 13 suspected pirates, seizing ladders, grappling hooks, nine automatic weapons and a rocket-propelled grenade launchers with three grenades in the process.

The Dutch Defence Ministry said that two Tanzanian fishermen were also on board. The fishermen said their dhow had been seized two months previously and was being used as a pirate mothership.

Kenya or the Seychelles are likely to prosecute the suspects, the Dutch Defence Ministry said.

The latest attack came just days after Somali pirates seized a massive Greek oil tanker capable of carrying 300,000 tonnes.

The MV Maran Centaurus was on its way to the US from the Saudi port of Jeddah and was believed to be carrying a full cargo of crude oil, worth in the vicinity of 150 million dollars at current market prices.

The vessel was the second-largest to be seized by Somali pirates

The largest ship to be seized - Saudi tanker Sirius Star, which was carrying 2 million barrels of oil worth around 100 million dollars at the time - was released late last year after a ransom of 3 million dollars was paid to the pirates.

The seizure of the Sirius Star, taken during a huge upswing in piracy, helped prompt the deployment of over a dozen international warships to the Gulf of Aden - one of the world's busiest waterways - to combat the piracy.

However, the pirates have simply moved their operations further out into the Indian Ocean to avoid patrols and the number of attacks in 2009 so far is almost double the 2008 figure, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

As of of November 30, there had been been a total of 204 attacks by suspected Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Of those attacks, 42 were successful.

Some eleven ships, and over 200 crew members, are still in pirate hands.