WORLD BRIEFING / SOMALIA
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France intercepted 11 suspected Somali pirates after they mistook a French naval ship for a commercial vessel and started heading toward it in preparation for an attack, a French Defense Ministry spokesman said.
The French navy seized the suspected pirates, who were in three small boats, about 600 miles off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.
“They confused the Nivose with a commercial ship and rushed towards it, to intercept it,” the spokesman said. “The Nivose then put its own craft in the water with its commandos and sent out a helicopter and stopped these 11 pirates who were on these three boats.”
Two were small boats that the pirates use for attacks and the third was the mother ship, which is used to transport supplies.
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