An Italian cargo ship, the Jolly Smeraldo, escaped being hijacked by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa on Wednesday, Italy's foreign ministry and company officials said.
The pirates attacked some 300 nautical miles southeast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as the Italian-owned container vessel travelled to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
"They fired some shots but after about 10 or 15 minutes they gave up and went away," said Andrea Gais, managing director of the company Messina, which owns the vessel.
On Sunday, an Italian cruise ship used guns and a firehose to beat off a pirate assault. An Italian tug boat with 16 crew onboard, is still being held in northern Somalia after it was seized on April 11.
NATO said last week it was extending a month-long anti-piracy mission by four of its ships in the Gulf of Aden until June 20, because of the worsening impact of piracy on shipping in the region.
Attacks have worsened despite the presence of naval forces from more than a dozen states, including task forces under NATO, EU and U.S. command. Restoring peace to war-torn Somalia is generally seen as the only long-term solution to the problem. (Reporting by Roberto Landucci; Editing by Matthew Jones).
Source: Reuters
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