The Indian Navy’s Tabar (in file picture above) that destroyed the “mother vessel” of Somali pirates on Tuesday

New Delhi, Nov. 19: The Indian Navy yesterday sunk a pirate ship in flames in the Gulf of Aden, marking the first major success by any foreign warship patrolling the African waters.

The navy said its warship fought a four-to-five-hour battle with the would-be hijackers 285 nautical miles southwest of Oman’s Salalah port late last evening, “badly damaging” the “mother ship” and forcing the pirates to abandon a second as they fled at high speed.

The action comes less than a week after the Indian Navy saved a merchant vessel from being hijacked by Somali pirates.

The drama on the night-time waters of the Indian Ocean underscored the growing international concern at the audacity with which armed pirates, mostly based in Somalia, range across vast areas of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, attacking at will.

In a statement today, Commander Nirad Kumar Sinha, a spokesperson for the Indian Navy, said the INS Tabar encountered a flotilla of three pirate vessels around 7.30pm.

One was apparently a “mother ship” with two speedboats in tow. The suspect vessel matched the description of a pirate vessel issued by international anti-piracy authorities, Sinha said.

Pirates live on “mother ships”, storing arms, fuel and other supplies on board. They catch target vessels using high-speed boats, heavily armed men boarding with rope ladders. Intelligence sources say three trawlers in the Gulf of Aden are believed to be pirate “mother ships”.

Around three speedboats may be used in an attack, each carrying six to 10 men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and sometimes rocket-propelled grenades.

Commander Sinha said yesterday’s operation “lasted four to five hours” and was “the first such incident in which the Indian Navy sank the pirate’s mother ship”.

When the Indian vessel tried to halt the ship, “the vessel’s threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it closed in on her”, he said.

“Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued its threat calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar…. INS Tabar retaliated in self-defence and opened fire on the mother vessel,” Commander Sinha said.

“As a result of the firing by INS Tabar, fire broke out on the vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel. Almost simultaneously, two speedboats were observed breaking off to escape. The ship chased the first boat, which was later found abandoned. The other boat made good its escape into darkness.”

There was no immediate word on casualties among the pirates.

The Indian account suggested that pirates had attacked the INS Tabar — equalling the brazenness of the hijacking on Sunday of the Sirius Star, a 1,080ft supertanker with 25 crew on board.

This year, at least 92 ships have been attacked in and around the Gulf of Aden, eight of them in the past two weeks, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Eighteen Indian sailors were released on Sunday after being held hostage for two months by Somali pirates.

The rescue of Stolt Valor’s crew came five days after commandos from a navy warship descended from a chopper to save a pirate-besieged Indian merchant vessel with 20 sailors on board.

Less than a month before that, on October 21, Somali gunmen acting as freelance coast guards freed a hijacked Indian dhow and its 13 crew members after a battle with pirates off the country’s northern coast. Four of the pirates were captured and four escaped.

Patrolling in the pirate-infested waters since October, the navy warship has successfully escorted approximately 35 ships, including a number of foreign flagged vessels, to safety. “We are in favour of more warships to be sent into the gulf,” a shipping ministry source told The Telegraph today.

Yesterday, a cargo ship registered in Hong Kong and loaded with 36,000 tonnes of wheat was seized in the Gulf of Aden, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

That hijacking was followed by a report today, still to be confirmed by Greek authorities, that a Greek bulk carrier had also been seized in the Gulf of Aden.

Last week, a British frigate, the Cumberland, launched speedboats to intercept a hijacked dhow, exchanging fire with pirates before British naval personnel boarded it, the British ministry of defence said yesterday.