French Warship Intercepts Somali Pirates. Eight Arrested

The French Navy on patrol in The Gulf of Aden has prevented the hijacking of a Panamanian registered cargo ship. The pirates fled at first sight of the warship, but were brazen enough to attempt a second attack.

A French warship has thwarted an attack by Somali pirates on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden and arrested eight men. Christophe Prazuck, a spokesman for the French armed forces, said on Friday that the pirates fled after the frigate first approached and were eventually captured when they made a second attempt to seize the S Venus some hours later.

"Resistance was impossible when faced by a well-armed warship,"

Prazuck told LCI television, adding that the French forces had found a rocket launcher, assault rifles and boarding ladders on the pirate's vessel. The operation happened some 80km from the coast of Yemen and the eight men seized by the French will be taken to nearby Somalia for trial. The crew of the French PM L'Her" dispatch boat intercepted two speedboats carrying eight Somali pirates as they were preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship, said a statement that President Nicolas Sarkozy's office released late on Thursday.

"There is a diplomatic agreement whereby the Somali authorities are committed to prosecuting and punishing [pirates],"

Prazuck said. Piracy off Somalia, one of the world's busiest shipping areas, has soared over the past year, earning the pirates millions of dollars of ransom payments and pushing up maritime insurance rates. In a bid to deter the bandits, the European Union set up an anti-piracy naval task force under British command last month involving warships and aircraft from several nations in the first such naval operation of its kind. France has been particularly active in the fight and has arrested 29 pirates in four operations since last April, some of whom are in France awaiting trial. Also on Thursday, Somali pirates seized an Egyptian cargo ship and its 28 crew members, but a Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked. According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirates attacked 111 times in the Gulf of Aden in 2008, successfully hijacking 42 ships.