The Navy’s elite Marcos commandos on Friday foiled a piracy attempt against an Indian carrier with 26 crew members in the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping route near the southern tip of the Red Sea between Somalia and Yemen.
The Marocs on board INS Trishul — on an anti-piracy mission — responded quickly and rescued the boat that was targeted by 12 pirates.
“The piracy attempt was made on the Indian ship MV Jag Amar at 12:30 pm and the INS Trishul, which was on an anti-piracy deployment in the region, responded immediately,” Navy spokesperson Captain DK Sharma said.
All 26 Indian crew members on board the Indian ship were safe. The Marcos commandos carried out a swift operation to rescue the 85,000-tonne bulk carrier. An AK 47, one magazine with 27 rounds, ropes, fuel drums and ladders were seized by the commandos.
The Navy has been actively engaged in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. In April, it rescued a Liberian vessel, MV Lord Mountbatten, in the Gulf of Aden after helicopter-borne marine commandos fired at the pirates who were attempting to hijack the ship.
Earlier this year the Navies of India and China rescued 19 Filipino crew members on board a ship in the Gulf of Aden hijacked by Somali pirates after a 10-hour standoff. Pirates stormed into a foreign merchant vessel registered in Tuvalu, an island nation on the South Pacific. The merchant ship was travelling from Kelang in Malaysia to port city of Aden in Yemen.