(News Today) - A Russian warship has freed the crew of an oil tanker seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden a day earlier, the European Union naval force said Thursday.No one was injured in the early morning rescue operation by the Marshal Shaposhnikov.
"The Marshal Shaposhnikov was ... fired upon by the pirates holding the ship. The Russian warship ... returned fire," the naval force reported. "Eventually the pirates surrendered and a boarding team from the Marshal Shaposhnikov arrived onboard the tanker, captured all the pirates and freed the crew."
The Russian-operated tanker Moscow University, which sails under the Liberian flag, has a crew of 23. It was on its way to China when pirates hijacked it Wednesday, the naval force said.
The captured pirates could face charges of group piracy with the use of violence and weapons, an offense carrying a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison, according to Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office.
Farther south off the coast of Tanzania, pirates failed in their attempt Wednesday to hijack a South Korean-flagged vessel, the naval force said. All those on board are reported to be well, it said.
EU NAVFOR escorts merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid in the region and protects other vulnerable vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
Pirate attacks are frequent in the Gulf of Aden, which lies between Yemen and Somalia at the northwest corner of the Indian Ocean.
Source : CNN
