NEW DELHI - India’s navy said yesterday it had freed an Iranian fishing vessel that had been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia in the latest attack against shipping in the Indian Ocean. The hijacking off Somalia fuelled concerns about a resurgence of Indian Ocean raids by opportunistic pirates, coming on top of a separate surge of attacks launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

“The fishing vessel had been boarded by pirates and the crew taken as hostages,” Indian navy spokesman Commander Vivek Madhwal said, naming the vessel as the Iranian-flagged Iman.

India had deployed its warship INS Sumitra – which was on anti-piracy patrol off the east coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden – after receiving a distress message from the fishing vessel. The warship “intercepted the vessel” and then worked to “coerce” the hijackers to release the crew and boat, Madhwal said, without giving an exact location.

The warship “ensured the successful release of all 17 crew members along with the boat”, he added, with the fishing boat then “sanitised and released for onward transit”.

The navy, which released photographs of the Iranian fishing boat and crew, as well as its sailors towing a skiff, did not give further details of the operation or the fate of the pirates.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels have launched scores of attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden targeting Israeli-linked vessels in response to Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

International naval forces have been diverted north from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea, sparking fears that pirates will exploit the security gap, with the first successful case of Somali piracy since 2017 recorded in December. 

- Nampa/AFP