Somali Pirates: French and Iranian Forces Halt Attacks- UPDATE: And theTurkish Navy

First, the French - as reported at MSC(HOA) here:

EU NAVFOR French warship NIVÔSE and Maritime Patrol aircraft continue to intercept and disrupt Pirate Action Groups

05/04/2010 21.48 UTC

EU NAVFOR has continued activities designed to disrupt and destroy Pirate Action Groups (PAGs) with combined sea and air operations in the Somali Basin.
On 4 April, the Swedish Maritime Patrol Aircraft located two suspect ships 270 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, composed of one mother ship and one attack skiff.

EUNAVFOR French warship FS NIVÔSE was vectored onto these craft and intercepted the suspected pirate vessels. NIVÔSE launched its helicopter and additionally sent a boarding party which subsequently apprehended 7 suspect pirates and found small arms, an RPG and ladders. This is the fourth such successful interception by NIVÔSE since joining the EU NAVFOR operation.

See also here, where the pictures of the French investigating the "mother ship" (note all the fuel drums) and a suspected pirate skiff (looks the the shop that prepares boarding ladders does a nice job) came from. Clicking on the pictures makes them bigger.

Now, the Iranians, with a report from Iranian PressTV here:

Iran's Navy has rescued an Iranian oil tanker attacked by Somali pirates in the dangerous waters of Gulf of Aden.

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, the Iran Faraz oil tanker was sailing from the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr to Izmir in Turkey when it came under attack by four pirate boats.

Pirates fled when Iran's Navy ships in the area started to chase the boats, Mehr said.

Iran Faraz continued its journey towards Izmir after the incident, the report added.

The photograph accompanying the PressTV article is from an earlier (March 5, 2010) pirate investigation by the French vessel Nivose, which was on a suspected pirate nabbing roll at the time:

From 5 to 7 March 2010, joining mission forces from France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden, Nivôse secured its "biggest seizure" so far in the vital shipping lane, with 35 pirates arrested and four mother ships seized in three days off Somalia.

The Swedish Maritime Patrol aircraft has been very busy in spotting and directing EU forces to areas where suspected "pirate action groups" are collecting.

UPDATE: Saturn5 has a report on a Turkish frigate rescuing some Indian sailors, a Danish-flagged merchant ship and forcing Somali pirates to run for cover ashore in Somalia here. Well done to F-493 TCG Gelibolu!

Somali Pirates: Dutch Navy Ship Tromp and Crew Free German Cargo Ship, Arrest 10 pirates

Reported as Pirated German ship rescued – EU NAVFOR HNMLS Tromp retakes pirated MV Taipan :

MV Taipan, a German flagged and owned container ship of deadweight of 12612 tonnes, was on route to Mombasa from Djibouti when pirates attacked and took control of the ship.

On the morning of the 5 April, 500 nautical miles east off the Somali coast, a Pirate Attack Group (PAG) attacked and got onboard the MV Taipan. As the pirates boarded the ship the MV Taipan crew followed EU NAVFOR Best Management Practice, retreated to a secure strong room and locked themselves in; they were able to stop all engines and thereby disable the ship, before alerting EU NAVFOR that the ship had been taken. HNLMS Tromp was sent immediately to the scene and located the pirated ship.

Initially HNMLS Tromp attempted to negotiate with the pirates to avoid casualties but when it became clear that the pirates intended resistng, HNMLS Tromp launched a highly professional operation to recapture the ship. Marines from the TROMP have now boarded and retaken control of the ship from the pirates. The crew of 13 (2 German, 3 Russian and 8 Sri Lankan nationals) have been released unharmed. 10 pirates have been taken into custody.

Tromp continues its "pirate sweep!"

Well done!

Arab Pirate Fighting Force Announced

A league of Arab nations proposes a force to fight pirates in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden:

A consortium of Arab states have set up a joint anti-piracy naval force to prevent the spread of piracy from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea and Gulf.

11 countries met Monday to set up an all-Arab Navy Task Force to deflect the growing threat Somali-led piracy poses to Arab shipping routes, namely oil and gas exports which pass through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea to the Suez Canal on the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

Royal Saudi Naval commander Lieutenant General Prince Fahd bin Abdullah told journalists one of the goals of the force would be "to discuss joint Arab coordination with multinational forces operating in the region to combat piracy and to agree on the mechanisms of the Arab contribution."

The force, to be initially led by Saudi Arabia, will include naval forces from Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The communique issued at the end of the meeting indicated that the size, nature and scope of the forces assigned by each country would be at their discretion.

Arab states have voiced concern over what they perceive to be the increasing encroachment of foreign navies into their regional waters under the guise of anti-piracy efforts.

Well, yeah, nature abhors a vacuum.

If this keeps up, it's going to get crowded out there at sea.