Pirates Are Leveraging The Houthi Attacks For Their Benefit’
This may appear unprecedented, but the Indian Navy has five of its frontline warships deployed in the Arabian Sea and near the piracy infested waters of Somalia and civil war torn Yemen.
Former naval veteran Capt DK Sharma told StratNews Global that their presence was made necessary one, because the rebel Houthis in Yemen fired missiles and carried out drone strikes on merchant vessels exiting the Red Sea.
Also because pirates saw an opportunity in this situation, where international naval assets were increasingly preoccupied with guarding against further Houthi attacks. They were not looking at what the pirates were doing, sailing down into the Arabian Sea over 300 km from Somali shores, to hijack merchant ships.
In Capt Sharma’s view, the operation by the Indian Navy Marcos team from the destroyer Chennai, to board and expel the hijackers from the Lila Norfolk cargo ship, had inbuilt risks. But the Marcos were helped by the fact that none of the crew of the cargo ship were captured by the pirates since they had taken refuge in the “Citadel”, a strong room that kept them safe from harm.
Tune in for more in this chat with Capt DK Sharma (Retd).
