NATO forces free 20 hostages from Somali pirates

Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:35am EDT

ON BOARD CORTE-REAL, April 18 (Reuters) - Dutch commandos freed 20 people on Saturday who had been forced to sail a pirate "mother ship" attacking commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said.

NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes told Reuters the hostages were freed after Dutch forces captured seven pirates who attacked a Greek-mananged tanker with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Comments (0)
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.