The Indian Naval Ship (INS) Delhi has put down a third piracy attempt in the last four days.
The latest attempt took place on Wednesday when the guided missile destroyer was tasked with escorting six merchant vessels with an assortment of 40 Indians among the 147 crew aboard the ships.
A dhow was detected approaching the convoy in the International Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) around 58 nautical miles (108 kilometers) south of the Yemeni coast in the Gulf of Aden. Marine Commandos (MARCOS) from the INS Delhi boarded the dhow after it was intercepted and recovered ‘a cache of arms including a 7.62 mm rifle, 06 Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) and ammunition’, subsequently disarming the pirates, according to a statement issued by the Indian Navy.
The navy had earlier reported the INS Delhi to have thwarted piracy attempts last Monday and on the previous two Sundays. On September 12th, the warship had neutralized a pirate vessel while escorting nine merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden, 70 nautical miles south of the coast of Yemen. MARCOS boarded the vessel, disarmed the five Somali and two Yemeni pirates and disposed off excess fuel. On September 5th a similar such incident had taken place, where the pirate vessel Bareeda was intercepted, boarded and arms and excess fuel was disposed off.
This is the 18th piracy attack prevented by the Indian Navy since October 2008. The Indian Navy has so far safely escorted over 1200 merchant vessels since then.
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