WORLD BRIEFING / SOMALIA
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Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a “mother ship” attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said.
In a separate incident, gunmen from Somalia seized a Belgian-registered ship and its 10 crew members, including seven Europeans, farther south in the Indian Ocean.
NATO Lt. Cmdr. Alexandre Fernandes, speaking on board the Portuguese warship Corte-Real, said the 20 fishermen were rescued after a Dutch frigate on a NATO patrol responded to an assault on a Greek-owned tanker by pirates firing assault rifles and grenades.
The Pompei, a dredging vessel, sounded two alarms when it was about 370 miles from the Somali coast.
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