NATO Ships, Helicopters Foil Pirate Attack

A NATO spokesman says alliance warships and helicopters have foiled an attack on a Norwegian tanker by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

The pirates were pursued for seven hours in a dramatic overnight chase involving Canadian and American forces.

The pirates had attacked the MV Front Ardenne late on Saturday but fled after crew alerted warships in the area.

Cmdr. Chris Davies, of NATO's maritime headquarters in England, said the pirates sailed into the path of the Canadian warship HMCS Winnipeg, which was escorting a World Food Program delivery ship through the gulf.

The pirates fled in their small skiff and were pursued by ship and helicopter for hours, only stopping after repeated warning shots were fired.

The American ship USS Halyburton was also in the area and joined the chase.

Portuguese Lt. Cmdr. Alexandre Santos Fernandes says NATO interrogated and disarmed the pirates before releasing them.

Lt. Cmdr. Fernandes said Sunday that the pirates were released because they cannot be prosecuted under Canadian law.

He said the decision to detain pirates was a matter for national authorities not NATO.

In Brussels, government officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the hijacking of a Belgian ship on Saturday and possible intervention.

The attack occurred in the pre-dawn darkness, when pirates hijacked the Belgian-flagged Pompei a few hundred miles north of the Seychelles, said Lt. Cmdr. Fernandes of NATO.

Belgium officials said the ship, a dredging vessel, sounded three alarms indicating it was under attack as it headed toward the palm-fringed islands, a high-end tourist destination, with a cargo of concrete and stones. The dredging ship, which belongs to the Jan de Nul Group, had 10-person crew: two Belgians, one Dutch, three Filipinos and four Croatians, Fernandes said.

As pirates steered the ship slowly northwest toward Somalia, 430 miles away, a Spanish military ship, a French frigate and a French scout ship all steamed toward the area to try to intercept it.

"There is no contact with the pirates, not with the crew, not with any other parties," Jaak Raes, director general of the Belgian Crisis Center, told reporters. "We are sure that the ship nw is heading to the coast of Somalia."

The high-seas drama underscored the dangers off the coasts of Somalia and east Africa despite the best efforts of an international flotilla that includes warships from the United States and the European Union.

Pirates from anarchic, clan-ruled Somalia have attacked more than 80 boats this year and are nw holding 18 ships and over 310 crew members hostage.