Wednesday, November 26, 2008
AFP - 2 55 KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - A maritime watchdog said Wednesday that the Indian navy had attacked and sunk a Thai fishing trawler after mistaking it for a Somali pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden.
The watchdog said one Thai crew member died and 14 others were still missing as a result of the November 18 incident.
The Indian Navy won international praise for taking on the Somali pirates, who have turned the vital Suez Canal trade route into the world's most dangerous waterway.
But Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) piracy reporting centre, said the vessel it attacked was a Thai-operated fishing boat which had been seized by pirates off Yemen on November 18.
"We can confirm that the incident has taken place. One Thai crew member died during the attack by the Indian navy, on the same day the vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates," he told AFP.
Choong said that one Cambodian crewman was rescued by passing fishermen four days later, but 14 other crew on the Kiribati-registered vessel are still missing.
India's navy said Wednesday that a ship it attacked and sank in the Gulf of Aden was hostile.
"The vessel was similar in description to what was mentioned in various piracy bulletins," an Indian navy spokesman, Commander Nirad Sinha, told AFP.
"The Indian navy ship asked them to stop for investigation on repeated calls. The vessel responded by saying it would blow up the Indian ship... Pirates were seen roaming on the deck with rocket-propelled grenade launchers."
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