Navy Battles -
British commandos killed two suspected pirates who tried to seize a Danish ship in the Gulf of Aden in an unprecedented operation involving a Royal Navy and a Russian warship, it was revealed today (12 Nov).
The suspect pirates were shot yesterday after the Royal
It said the
"Various non-forcible methods had been used in an attempt to stop the dhow but they were unsuccessful," the MoD said, adding that the inflatables circled the dhow in an attempt to stop it. People on the dhow fired at the British commandos who returned fire in self-defence, the MoD said. Two of the dhow crew were killed.
The rest of the crew surrendered and the vessel was boarded 60 miles south of the Yemeni coast.
A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the
Igor Dygalo, the Russian navy's chief spokesman, told the Guardian that the Russian frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless) was also involved in yesterday's operation after the two warships were alerted as they patrolled the area.
"The pirates fired on the Danish craft with automatic weapons and tried twice to seize it," said Dygalo. He said the Neustrashimy had been escorting another Danish vessel when it was called to help.
"As with all shooting incidents, a post-shooting incident investigation is being conducted," an MoD spokesman said tonight.
The incident occurred amid mounting criticism of the failure to cope with a growing number of piracy incidents in the
This year at least 32 ships have been hijacked in the area. A multinational naval force including US, British and German warships is patrolling the waters off
Neustrashimy, from
The crew – 17 Ukrainian nationals, two Russians, and one Lithuanian – yesterday managed to send an email to a journal in
Dyaglo said Ukrainian representatives were holding negotiations to resolve the stand-off.
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