Yesterday, the the crew of Dutch warship HNMLS Rotterdam spotted a suspected pirate boat close to the Somali shoreline. As they approached the boat, the pirates pulled out AK-47’s and opened fire.

Mistake.

The NATO warship responded with fire of their own – killing one pirate, and setting the dhow on fire in the process. This forced the remaining 25 pirates to leap into the sea. They were fished from the water and arrested by the Rotterdam’s crew. But the rescue effort proved dangerous as the gunmen on shore continued to fire at both the boarding party and the Rotterdam.

Commodore Ben Bekkering, commander of the NATO task force:

We know that pirates are increasingly using larger dhows as mother ships. Therefore we routinely inspect them. In this instance the pirates openly chose confrontation. This does not happen often and it indicates that we are indeed impeding their operations and in doing so, pushing them to take more extreme options.

[Source: Daily Mail]