AFR: Pirates seize Belgian ship with 10 foreign crew
By Katharine Houreld and Todd Pitman19 Apr 2009 12:29 AM
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 18 AP - Somali pirates attacked two ships off the Horn of Africa on Saturday, seizing one Belgian vessel carrying 10 crew.
NATO forces intervened in the other assault, chasing the pirates down and freeing 20 fisherman on a Yemeni dhow hijacked earlier.
In the first attack, pirates hijacked the Belgian-flagged Pompei in the Indian Ocean, a few hundred kilometres north of the Seychelles islands, said Portuguese Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Santos Fernandes, who is travelling with the NATO fleet patrolling the region.
Belgium reported that the ship issued two warnings early on Saturday morning that it was under attack on its way to the Seychelles. It has 10 crew: two Belgians, one Dutch, three Filipinos and four Croatians.
Hours after the first attack, pirates further north in the Gulf of Aden attacked a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, which Fernandes said issued a distress call shortly after dawn when it came under attack with small arms and rockets.
NATO forces in the area responded to the Handytankers Magic's call and followed fleeing pirates to a Yemeni-flagged fishing dhow that had been seized on Sunday, Fernandes said.
He said pirates were using the Yemeni vessel as a "mother ship", a boat that allows the pirates' tiny skiffs to operate far off the Somali coast.
Dutch commandos then freed 20 fishermen from the dhow. Their nationalities were not known. Dutch forces also briefly detained seven pirates and seized seven Kalashnikov rifles and one rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
