A Turkish frigate set sail Tuesday to join an international coalition against Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the Anatolia news agency reported. TGC Giresun, with 263 men on board, is expected to arrive in the region in "four or five days" and begin its duty on February 25, its commanding officer Cenk Dalkanat said at the Aksaz navy base on the Mediterranean coast.
It will serve for four months in the new counter-piracy multinational task force, CTF 151, operating in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, before being replaced by another frigate.
Last week, the Turkish parliament gave the government a one-year authorisation to send ships to the Gulf of Aden to combat rampant piracy in the region. Three Turkish vessels were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in 2008, with the last of them being released on February 2. Piracy is rife and well organised in the area where Somalia's north-eastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on busy sealanes leading to and from the Suez Canal. More than 130 ships were attacked in the area in 2008 alone.