British, US forces free hijacked ship

US and British forces stormed a hijacked Italian cargo ship in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, freeing the 23-man crew and capturing all 11 Somali pirates, Italian officials said. The foreign ministry issued a statement welcoming the release which it said was carried out by forces from two naval vessels, one from the United States and one from Britain.
The Italian news agency Ansa said they were special forces. The foreign ministry said the crew of the 55,675 bulk carrier Montecristo had taken refugee inside an armoured shelter on the ship when it was hijacked on Monday and had continued to control its movements, bringing it closer to an area where anti-piracy forces were patrolling.
The move into an armoured shelter appeared part of new measures agreed by seafaring nations to combat Somali piracy, which costs the world economy billions of dollars each year. The ship's owners said the crew, from Italy, India and Ukraine had trained in anti-piracy drills. Somali pirates, operating on small inflatables, normally use rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, with no heavier armaments that would penetrate armour plating.
The foreign ministry said the US and Britain had operated under the orders of Italian Admiral Gualtiero Mattesi, commander of the Nato Ocean Shield anti-piracy task force. Earlier, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said Italy would shortly deploy a special naval force on merchant vessels to protect them from Somali gunmen in an escalation of international efforts to combat the scourge of piracy.
Many ships already carry private security contractors to counter piracy, but deployment of military forces is a significant boost in measures that had previously been hampered by disputes over the legality of using lethal force. La Russa said the new force of naval soldiers would be divided into 10 groups of six to protect vessels using the busy but highly vulnerable waterways in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. It would be based in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.