piracy force Tuesday attacked pirate bases along the Somali coast for the first time, using helicopters to destroy suspect boats. Stepping up efforts against a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise that international navies have struggled to contain, the EU Naval Force (EU Navfor) said it had conducted an overnight attack on pirate targets using helicopters and surveillance aircraft. It was the first time the EU had taken its fight against the pirates to Somali soil since its mandate was expanded earlier this year to allow strikes on land, as well as at sea. A Somali pirate said the air strike destroyed speed boats, fuel deports and an arms store. Bile Hussein, a pirate commander, said the attack on Handulle village in the Mudug region will cause a setback to pirate operations. The village lies about 18 km north of Haradheere town, a key pirate lair. There were no reports of deaths in the attack, Hussein said. EU Navfor said it had carried out the attack to destroy pirate equipment, four days after Somali gunmen hijacked a Greek-owned oil tanker carrying close to a million barrels of crude oil in the Arabian Sea. EU Navfor's Operation Commander, Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, said the attack would “further increase the pressure on, and disrupt pirates' efforts to get out to sea to attack merchant shipping and dhows”. Initial surveillance indicated that no Somalis had been wounded as a result of the attack, EU Navfor said. “We have monitored several locations for quite a long time and the time and place chosen was one of the best opportunities,” Timo Lange, a media officer for EU Navfor, said. He said the force would launch similar attacks in future “given that those targets will show up again”. The EU extended its counter-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia in March to the end of 2014 and expanded the area it covers to include the coastline itself. Until Tuesday's attack, it had only operated in waters off Somalia however. But the decision to extend operations to the Somali coastline itself means it is now able to target weapons and other equipment stored on the shore in order to reduce the pirates' ability to launch attacks. Despite successful efforts to stop attacks in the Gulf of Aden shipping lane, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea due to their limited resources and the vast distances involved.
