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French nets pirates, US to boost fight
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-16 08:28

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PARIS - The French navy detained 11 Somali pirates trying to seize a Liberian-flagged merchant ship, and Washington said on Wednesday it would send an envoy to a conference on Somalia next week to boost the anti-piracy fight.

"These pirates are criminals," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington. "They are armed gangs on the sea, and those plotting attacks must be stopped and those carrying them out must be brought to justice."

Heavily armed pirates from lawless Somalia have been increasingly striking the busy Indian Ocean shipping lanes and strategic Gulf of Aden, capturing dozens of vessels, hundreds of hostages and making off with millions of dollars in ransoms.

The French frigate Nivose captured a pirate gang's mother ship, which was carrying two small assault boats, about 560 miles east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Tuesday, the French Defence Ministry said in Paris.

French nets pirates, US to boost fight
This aerial photo taken from a French army helicopter and released by the French Defense Ministry on Wednesday, April 15, 2009, showing a small vessel, center, before its interception by French military officers aboard two dinghies, unseen, on Wednesday, 550 miles (900 kilometers) east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa. [Agencies] 

Ministry spokesman Christophe Prazuck said the pirates' "centre of gravity" used to be the Gulf of Aden but there had been a rise in attacks further away from Somalia.

The Nivose, deployed to prevent attacks in the gangs' widening hunting grounds off the coast of Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, tracked the pirates after its helicopter thwarted an attack on the Liberian-flagged Safmarine Asia.

Supported by a surveillance plane, France's frigate is in the region as part of "Operation Atalanta", the European Union's anti-piracy mission that also involves German, Spanish, French and Italian forces.

In Athens, Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry said the Saint Vincent-flagged cargo ship Titan and its 24 crew were freed by their Somali captors.

"There were three Greeks among the crew," said a ministry official, who declined to be named. The official said the ministry had no information whether a ransom had been paid.

The vessel was seized in March on its way from the Black Sea to South Korea.

Anti-Piracy Fight

There has been no let-up in the seizure of ships by pirates since US military snipers killed three Somali pirates on Sunday and freed an American ship captain who had been held hostage for five days.

Last week, French forces attacked pirates holding a yacht with five hostages in a rescue mission, during which one of the hostages was killed.

The pirates have vowed to take revenge on US and French citizens after the military operations.

Clinton said better international coordination was needed to fight piracy and that she would send an envoy to a Somali donors' conference in Brussels on April 23 to work on new initiatives.

"We may be dealing with a 17th century crime, but we need to bring 21st century assets to bear," said Clinton.

"Our envoy will work with other partners to help the Somalis assist us in cracking down on pirate bases and in decreasing incentives for young Somali men to engage in piracy," she said.

Clinton said the United States would step up efforts to track and freeze the monetary assets of the pirates, just as it did with drug traffickers and terrorist groups.

"We have noticed that the pirates are buying more and more sophisticated equipment, they're buying faster and more capable vessels," she said.

"They are clearly using their ransom money for their benefit, both personally and on behalf of their piracy, and we think we can begin to try to track and prevent that."

The Egyptian ambassador in Somalia, Said Morsi, said his country was in contact with Somali tribal leaders and local authorities to press for the release of two Egyptian ships captured this week.

He said he hoped the 34 Egyptians on board the fishing vessels Momtaz 1 and Ahmed Samara would be released within days. Morsi, in remarks carried by Egypt's state news agency MENA, said the pirates had not demanded a ransom and were holding the fisherman on board the boats. He said the pirates accused the boats of fishing illegally in Somali waters.