A suspected Somali pirate was killed during shooting between pirates and armed guards on board a Panamanian-flagged ship, a maritime official and EU anti-piracy taskforce said today.
The private guards protecting the MV Almezaan returned fire as they beat back two attacks by the same gang off the coast of lawless Somalia yesterday.
A Spanish warship patrolling the waters deployed a helicopter that fired warning shots to stop the pirates as they fled the area. Spanish troops seized six individuals, recovered one body and destroyed three pirate vessels.
"The body has been transferred to Navarra," EU NAVFOR said in a statement on its website, referring to the Spanish frigate. "An investigation indicated that the individual had died from small calibre gunshot wounds," it added.
The MV Almezaan was en route to the Somali capital Mogadishu, the statement said. A Kenyan maritime official confirmed the incident from the port city of Mombasa.
Sea gangs have attacked ships in the busy lanes in the Gulf of Aden that link Europe and Asia for several years, earning ransoms worth millions of dollars from vessels captured. A fleet of foreign navies are patrolling the waters, operating convoys and offering safe transit corridors, but they have found themselves increasingly stretched as the pirates roam further out into the Indian Ocean.
Some shippers have already started to avoid the Gulf of Aden, opting to go around the Cape of Good Hope, raising transport costs, while others have chosen to carry private guards.
Pirates yesterday seized a Turkish ship with its crew of 21 and a Bermuda-flagged reefer with a crew of 25.
Reuters