23 suspected pirates captured, Indian navy says

The Indian navy captured 23 piracy suspects who tried to take over a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden, between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Indian officials said.

In addition to the 12 Somali and 11 Yemeni suspects, the Indian navy seized two small boats and "a substantial cache of arms and equipment," the military said in a statement.
Among the seized items were seven AK-47 automatic rifles, three other automatic weapons and 13 loaded magazines; a rocket-propelled grenade launcher along with rockets, cartridges and grenades; up to three outboard motors and a global positioning system receiver.
Pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia have increased this year, with armed men staging increasingly bold attacks on ever-larger targets. This year, pirates have attacked nearly 100 vessels off Somalia's coast and hijacked nearly 40, the International Maritime Bureau said.

The Indian warship Mysore, which carried out Saturday's operation, is on anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden, the release said. The Mysore received a distress call Saturday morning from the MV Gibe, a merchant vessel sailing under an Ethiopian flag.
The Gibe reported that two boats were firing small arms at it. The merchant ship, which was 13 nautical miles from the Mysore, fired back with small arms onboard the vessel.