Members of the Iranian Navy (file photo)
Iran's Navy warships have foiled a pirate attack on a cargo ship in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Somalia in the Horn of Africa.
The MV First Ocean bulk carrier, operated by the multinational V-ships Company, came under attack on Tuesday after several armed people on board three skiffs approached it at high speed, IRNA reported.
The Iranian warships patrolling the area made their way toward the cargo ship immediately upon a distress call coming from the ship that reported an unauthorized boarding attempt by a number of people.
Iranian Navy marines managed to foil the pirate attack on the First Ocean merchant vessel after they engaged in a fire fight. No injuries were reported among the crews of the Iranian ships.
Tuesday's incident brings to twelve the number of confrontations between the Iranian Navy and Somali pirates since the start of the new Persian Year on March 21.
On Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy warships saved the Iranian oil-tanker, Damavand, from a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden.
The Iranian flotilla of warships deployed in the Gulf of Aden is part of an anti-piracy surveillance in the area.
Rampant piracy off the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia has made the waters among the most dangerous in terms of pirate activities.
The Gulf of Aden, which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, is the quickest route for more than 20,000 vessels traveling annually between Asia, Europe and the Americas.
However, attacks by heavily armed Somali pirates on speedboats have prompted some of the world's largest shipping firms to switch routes from the Suez Canal and reroute cargo vessels around southern Africa, leading to climbing shipping costs.
Somalia has been in strife since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, it has been embroiled in a bitter civil war for years.
The lawless state has been without a functioning government ever since and the authority of the so-called Transitional Federal Government is limited mostly to the area around the capital city, Mogadishu.
MP/MMA
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