Royal Navy in Firefight with Pirates

The Times reports that a Royal Navy boarding party has traded small arms fire with Somali pirates. No RN personnel were injured and the pirate vessel was subsequently boarded.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.