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French Navy captures 9 pirates off Somalia

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-24 10:55

PARIS -- In a blow against high-seas piracy, the French navy captured nine pirates near the Gulf of Aden and handed them over Thursday to authorities in Somalia.

In this photo released by the United States Navy, Somali pirates holding the merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck of the ship, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008 after a US Navy request to check on the health and welfare of the ship's crew in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. [Agencies]

A French navy vessel intercepted the pirates in two small boats in a routine check about 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the nearest coast, the Defense Ministry said.

The pirates were handed over to Somali officials Thursday near Bossaso in Somalia's the Puntland region. The ministry said France received assurances that the prisoners would be treated according to international conventions.

"We wanted to send a very clear message to the pirates that the days of their flourishing and unpunished business is over," Gen. Christian Baptiste, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said by phone.

Baptiste said French sailors turned up assault rifles, grenade-launchers, grappling hooks and ladders on the two boats.

In order not to tip off any other pirates about French operations, he declined to say when or where the hostages were taken into French custody or which French vessel detained them.

The International Maritime Bureau said Thursday that pirate attacks off Somalia's coast have surged 75 percent this year. The Horn of Africa country has had no central government since 1991.

After French citizens were taken hostage off Somalia in two piracy incidents earlier this year, French troops led operations that freed the captives. France is currently holding 12 Somali pirates linked to those two attacks.

"This time, we wanted to show that prevention was possible, even if it's difficult" because the sea zone is vast and the pirates' boats often resemble fishing boats, Baptiste said.

In June, the U.N. Security Council, pushed by France and the United States, unanimously adopted a resolution that allows ships of foreign nations that cooperate with the Somali government to enter their territorial waters to combat piracy at sea.

A NATO flotilla is sailing toward the Somali coast and is expected to begin anti-piracy operations there within the next few days.

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