Russian marines Thursday stormed a hijacked Russian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden in a daring early morning raid, killing one of the Somali pirates aboard and capturing another 10.
Russian marines Thursday stormed a hijacked Russian oil tanker in the
Gulf
of Aden
in a daring early morning raid, killing one of the Somali pirates
aboard and capturing another 10.
The oil tanker's crew of 23 escaped unharmed after the marines from the Marshal
Shaposhnikov sped in small boats to the
Moscow
University
oil
tanker and scaled its sides before exchanging fire with the pirates.
"The tanker was freed last night as a result of a successful armed
operation by marines from the Marshal Shaposhnikov," a spokesman for the
Russian Foreign Ministry told AFP.
The operation, which lasted over three hours, was hailed by Russian officials
as a decisive show of
Russia
's
naval capabilities.
"It was sharp, professional and quick," said President Dmitry
Medvedev, ordering Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to give medals to
all those involved in the rescue.
Russian investigators said the 10 captured pirates would be brought to
Moscow
to
face charges, adding that some had been wounded in the firefight and one
killed. Russian television said more pirates had managed to escape.
"The investigation is taking steps to transport the captured pirates to
Moscow
,"
the Investigative Committee of Russia's Prosecutor General Office said in a
statement.
It said the investigation will be conducted in accordance with Russian and
international law and they will face "criminal responsibility" for
the hijacking.
Somali pirates seized control of the 230-meter-long
Moscow
University
early
Wednesday as it sailed out of the
Gulf of Aden
,
setting up a high-seas standoff as the Marshal Shaposhnikov steamed to the
rescue.
The tanker had been on its way to
China
from
the
Red Sea
with 86,000 metric tons of crude oil, believed to
be worth around $50 million.
Before storming the tanker, the warship's crew had used a helicopter to conduct
reconnaissance, RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a high level naval official in
the region as saying.
"Simultaneously, boats with an antiterror group approached the tanker from
the sea and boarded the vessel," the official said. "After a short
fire-fight, the pirates were neutralized."
The crew had been locked into a cabin as the pirates took control of the
vessel.
The end to the 20-hour hijacking is a major triumph for the Russian navy and
comes as the entire Russian military gears up for a massive parade Sunday to
mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Navfor, the European Union's antipiracy force, called the liberation of the
tanker a "dramatic rescue," while the ship's operator said it had
been carried out "in the best traditions of the Russian naval
mariners."
Dmitry Rogozin, the Kremlin's envoy to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
said the operation had earned high marks in
Brussels
and
would become a "textbook example" of successful high-seas rescue
operations.
"We have showed our colleagues in NATO and the EU that
Russia
is
still a self-sufficient state which can ensure security of its citizens,
including with the use of its armed forces, far outside their native
country," Rogozin told Echo of Moscow radio.
Observers also said the crew managed to escape unharmed thanks to the captain's
professionalism.
The seizure of the
Moscow
University
was a
jolt to the international antipiracy system put in place along one of the
world's busiest shipping routes.
Heavily armed and equipped with GPS navigation and satellite phones, pirates
raked in an estimated $60 million in ransoms last year.
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