11 Pirates Are Seized in Raid by French Navy

By SHARON OTTERMAN and MARK McDONALD
NYT

French forces detained 11 suspected pirates during an assault on what they described as a pirate “mother ship” in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Somalia Wednesday, less than 24 hours after an American cargo ship was attacked by pirates in the same region.

The 11 detainees are being held on board a French frigate, the Nivôse, part of a European Union antipiracy task force patrolling in the area, the French defense ministry said in a statement.

The French forces initially responded to a distress call from a Liberian-flagged container ship, the Safmarine Asia, which came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire from two small pirate skiffs Tuesday night. A helicopter from the Nivôse arrived on the scene and observed the skiffs retreating and returning to the “mother ship” — actually, a 30-foot boat — which was being used as a floating base about 460 miles off the Somali coast, according to a statement by the European Union’s Maritime Security Center.

The French forces then mounted their assault on the boat on Wednesday, and found a range of firearms and equipment on board, 17 barrels of fuel, as well as the suspected pirates. The Nivôse took the boat and the skiffs in tow and is now on its way to the port of Mombasa, Kenya, the Maritime Security Center said. The detainees are expected to be sent to France to be prosecuted.

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