The fishing boat the ALMERAJ 1 was kidnapped last month off the Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
coast by armed suspected pirates, a move that raised fears of new piracy activity in the northwestern Indian Ocean off Somalia.
The kidnapping of the ALMERAJ 1 followed the assault on the tanker Central Park, which the U.S. blamed on pirates in the Gulf of Aden, where Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the JewsThey like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels are operating.
The EU naval forces captured the pirates who seized the fishing dhow near Eyl town in the Puntland state of Somalia. They were demanding $400,000 in ransom while threatening to use the vessel as a mother ship for additional assaults on commercial shipping.
EUNAVFOR said that close and effective cooperation with Somali police forces and local authorities has eventually led to the surrender of suspected pirates who kidnapped the Iranian fishing vessel AL-MERAJ 1.
"Maritime security in North West Indian Ocean is a shared responsibility," said EUNAVFOR.
Operation ATALANTA monitored the dhow closely for more than 230 nautical miles away from the coast of Somalia. This included the deployment of an unarmed drone and the involvement of the EU embassy in Mogadishu and the Somali authorities.
An Italian and a Spanish warship are currently deployed to the area of operation for Operation ATALANTA.