Russian and British forces teamed up with boats and helicopters to rescue a cargo ship from an attempted hijacking in the Gulf of Aden, then chased down the attackers and killed two of them in a gunbattle, military officials say.
Russian Navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo said the Russian missile frigate Neustrashimy and the British frigate HMS Cumberland each sent up a helicopter against the pirates as they tried to commandeer a Danish vessel on Tuesday. It was the first action by a Russian warship sent to Somalia.
“The pirates tried to hit the ship with automatic weapons fire and made several attempts to seize it,” Dygalo said on Wednesday on state-run Vesti-24 television.
PHOTO: AP
The British military said the Cumberland then sent boats to circle a Yemeni-flagged dhow — a traditional wooden vessel — that apparently had been involved in the attack on the Danish-registered MV Powerful and refused to halt.
The crew of the dhow opened fire at the boats, but surrendered after the British crews returned fire in self-defense, the military said. A British crew boarded the dhow and found that two suspected pirates, believed to be Somalis, had been shot and killed, it said.
A Yemeni man was also found wounded and later died despite emergency treatment, the British military said. It said it was unclear whether his injuries were a result of the firefight or a previous incident involving the pirates.
Russia sent the Neustrashimy, or Intrepid, to protect Russian ships and crew off Somalia’s coast after a Ukrainian freighter with three Russians aboard — and loaded with battle tanks — was hijacked in September. Its captain has died, and the 20 other crew are still being held aboard the MV Faina.
Attacks have continued virtually unabated off Somalia, which has had no functioning government since 1991.
Meanwhile, South Korea plans to send a destroyer to the lawless waters off Somalia, where several of its merchant ships have been hijacked by pirates, a report said yesterdayday.
Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed senior official as saying the government would seek parliamentary approval for the deployment during its current session, which ends on Dec. 8.
“The South Korean warship, if dispatched, will cooperate with the US 5th Fleet in Oman and the French navy in Djibouti,” the official was quoted as saying.
The ship would be loaded with missiles and other weaponry and accompanied by Navy special forces in case of an emergency situation, the official said.
The defense ministry declined to confirm the report, saying consultations were still under way with other government agencies.
DEATH TOLL 903: More than 900 workers are believe to be trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of several hydropower projects after flash floods in Nepal-Tibet Rescue teams were working to reach more than 900 people thought to be trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of half a dozen hydropower projects in Nepal following the devastating flash floods, ?the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said yesterday. The death toll from the unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud ?and debris that crashed through valleys of Nepal on Wednesday last week has risen to 903 people, with 16 more dead reported on the Tibet side of the border. More than 4,000 are missing in Nepal, with another 500 in Tibet. Hundreds of bodies, many unidentified, have been
Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Saturday answered US President Donald Trump’s “Lake America” decree with a billboard-sized message on the Canadian shoreline — “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” — as Canadian leaders met Trump’s move with ridicule rather than outrage. Wearing a Canada national soccer team jersey, Ford unveiled the sign near Grimsby and posed for photographs. The message is repeated in French. The display followed Trump’s executive order directing US federal agencies to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.” After months of tariffs, threats to make Canada the 51st US state and personal attacks on its leaders, the reaction in
PLENARY SESSION: Although the SCO says it is ‘not an alliance directed against other states,’ Putin and Xi have repeatedly made anti-Western speeches during its summits Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are expected tomorrow in Kyrgyzstan for a two-day summit, also attended by Iran’s and India’s leaders, of a regional bloc seeking to be a counter-influence to the West. Around a dozen heads of states would head to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to mark 25 years of the Shanghai Cooperation Group (SCO). The group brings together Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, four Central Asian countries and Moscow-allied Belarus. Putin and Xi have previously used SCO summits to promote their vision of a multipolar world and present a united front against the
Dozens of Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked the Palestinian village of Qusra in the northern occupied West Bank after nearly three weeks of tension in the area, drawing rare condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier this month, a group of settlers began blocking supplies from entering Palestinian houses on the outskirts of the village near Nablus, trapping residents inside and drawing unusually strong criticism from the US ambassador. Weeks later, Israeli forces continue to operate in the area while settlers still roam the surrounding hills. On Saturday, Qusra residents and dozens of settlers had descended on the village,
RSS