Raid on ship off Africa’s east coast frees hostages held for three months
A ROYAL Navy team has successfully stormed a vessel seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and rescued five Yemeni fishermen who had been held hostage for three months.
The Ministry of Defence described the Yemeni fishing boat as a pirate “mother ship”. The pirates used it as a base from which to mount attacks in three smaller craft, which were destroyed in the operation last Thursday.
The group of about half a dozen sailors and Royal Marines, dispatched from a British warship that is part of an anti-piracy mission in the region, found and destroyed several weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades.