This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/8005730.stm
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Dutch forces free pirate captives | Dutch forces free pirate captives |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Dutch commandos have freed 20 people who had been captured by Somali pirates after the raiders attacked a Greek-managed tanker, Nato says. | Dutch commandos have freed 20 people who had been captured by Somali pirates after the raiders attacked a Greek-managed tanker, Nato says. |
| The captives, Yemeni fishermen, were freed as the Dutch forces captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden. | The captives, Yemeni fishermen, were freed as the Dutch forces captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden. |
| They were aboard a pirate "mother ship" from which smaller craft attack commercial vessels. | They were aboard a pirate "mother ship" from which smaller craft attack commercial vessels. |
| The captured pirates are alleged to have attacked the tanker using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. | The captured pirates are alleged to have attacked the tanker using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. |
| A Dutch warship from the Nato force responded to a distress call from the tanker and saw the pirates fleeing toward a Yemeni fishing trawler, Nato spokesman Alexandre Santos Fernandes said. | |
| Nato troops boarded the vessel and freed the 20 Yemenis who, he says, had been held hostage since Sunday. | |
| The pirates were set free, the Associated Press news agency reports, because under Dutch law they could not be held at sea under the circumstances in which they were captured. |