Dutch navy rescues hostages

DUTCH commandos yesterday freed 20 Yemeni hostages and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a \'mothership\' attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, Nato officials said.

In a separate incident, gunmen from Somalia seized a Belgian-registered ship, the Pompei, and its 10 crew, including seven Europeans, further south in the Indian Ocean.

Somali sea gangs have captured dozens of ships, taken hundreds of sailors prisoner and made off with tens of millions of dollars in ransoms despite an unprecedented deployment by foreign navies in waters off the Horn of Africa.

The attacks have disrupted UN aid, driven up insurance costs and forced some shipping companies to route cargo round South Africa.

Nato Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes, speaking onboard the Portuguese warship Corte-Real, said the 20 fishermen were rescued after a Dutch navy frigate on a Nato patrol responded to an assault on a Greek-owned tanker by pirates firing rifles and grenades.

Commandos from the Dutch ship, the De Zeven Provincien, pursued the pirates, who were on a small skiff, back to their \'mothership\' – a hijacked Yemeni fishing dhow. \"We have freed the hostages, we have freed the dhow and we have seized the weapons. The pirates did not fight and no gunfire was exchanged,\" Fernandes said.

A Belgian government spokesman said fears grew for the Pompei, a dredging vessel, after it sounded two alarms early yesterday when it was 370 miles from the Somali coast en route to the Seychelles. Fernandes said the hijacked ship was carrying two Belgian, four Croatian, one Dutch and three Filipino crew members.

A pirate source who said he was onboard the Pompei told a news agency in Mogadishu by satellite phone that the pirates would sail it to a coastal base. \"We have hijacked a Belgian ship. We will take it to Haradheere,\" he said.

Last week, pirates captured two more ships and fired on two others. A French naval frigate seized 11 gunmen on Wednesday, foiling another attack.

Regional analysts and security experts say that without political stability in Somalia, mired in conflict for 18 years, the pirate gangs will continue to thrive. The Somali government plans to present its proposals to combat the sea gangs at a major donors\' meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. It says it needs more money to tackle insecurity on land and provide jobs for the country\'s many out-of-work young men.