The Indian Navy said it is deploying three warships and reconnaissance aircraft in the Arabian Sea to “maintain a deterrent presence” after a string of recent shipping attacks.
Three guided-missile destroyers as well as P8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft were being deployed following “the recent spate of attacks in the Arabian Sea,” it said in a statement late on Monday.
Washington accused Tehran of carrying out a drone attack on Saturday on the MV Chem Pluto tanker 200 nautical miles (370km) off the coast of India, claims the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called “worthless.”
Photo: AFP
It was the first time Washington has openly accused Iran of directly targeting ships since the start of Israel’s war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is backed by Tehran.
The Liberian-flagged and Japanese-owned MV Chem Pluto was moored off India’s port of Mumbai on Monday.
“Analysis of the area of attack and debris found on the ship points toward a drone attack,” the navy said, adding that “further forensic and technical analysis will be required.”
New Delhi is also boosting its anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden after Somali pirates this month hijacked the bulk carrier MV Ruen.
The navy said it had shadowed the Bulgaria-owned and Malta-flagged vessel after it was seized by Somali pirates 380 nautical miles east of the Yemeni island of Socotra on Dec. 16.
The Somali pirates, who released one injured sailor, took the MV Ruen and its remaining 17 crew members to Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland, where it is now moored off the city of Bosaso, the navy said.
India had also sent a guided-missile destroyer to the region as part of “augmenting the anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden,” it added.
Pirate attacks off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 — with the gunmen launching attacks as far as 1,974 nautical miles from the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean — before falling off sharply in the past few years.
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