NATO commander says big gains made against Somali pirates this summer

SINCE June 6, two merchant ships have been attacked by pirates but neither were successful, reports Dutch Commodore Ben Bekkering, Commander of NATO's counter piracy mission, Operation Ocean Shield.

"This represents a significant decline compared to previous periods," he said. "More importantly, no merchant ships have been hijacked by pirates since May.

"This does not mean that the pirates don't try. On two occasions over the summer, they managed to hijack a dhow, which could have been used as a mothership from which to launch attacks. On both occasions the pirates were disrupted by the Royal Netherlands Navy's HNLMS Evertsen and HNLMS Rotterdam.

Commodore Bekkering conceded pirates still hold seven ships and 177 crewmembers hostage.

"Today, with ships patrolling the shipping corridor in the Gulf of Aden and present in front of the Somali coast, the task force remains ready to prevent successful pirate attacks," he said.