Somalia boosts its anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden

Somalia maritime police patrolling the area. Pic/AP

Somalia's maritime police force on Thursday intensified patrols in the Red Sea following a failed pirate hijacking of a ship in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week.

The commander of the maritime force in the semiautonomous region of Puntland, Abdullahi Mohamed Ahmed said that patrols in the waters had doubled and were on a 24-hour rotation to deter pirates. "We have many challenges here. We had initially dealt with the pirates and stopped their activities, but recently on top of al-Shabab and IS we have had to look out for them again," he said.

On Sunday, the US military said it had captured five men who had attempted to hijack an Israeli-linked tanker off the coast of Yemen. US and British militaries said the armed attackers seized the Liberian-flagged Central Park, managed by Zodiac Maritime, in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates had attempted to escape using speedboats but surrendered after being pursued by American destroyer the USS Mason.

Yemeni Houthi rebels have conducted recent attacks on commercial vessels on the Gulf of Aden, seen as part of a rise in violence in the region due to the Israel-Hamas war. But the Pentagon said this latest attempt was carried out by Somali nationals.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever