In a blow against high-seas piracy, the French navy captured nine pirates near the Gulf of Aden and handed them over Thursday to authorities in Somalia.
A French navy vessel intercepted the pirates in two small boats in a routine check about 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the nearest coast, the Defense Ministry said.
The pirates were handed over to Somali officials Thursday near Bossaso in Somalia's the Puntland region. The ministry said France received assurances that the prisoners would be treated according to international conventions.
"We wanted to send a very clear message to the pirates that the days of their flourishing and unpunished business is over," Gen. Christian Baptiste, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said by phone.
Baptiste said French sailors turned up assault rifles, grenade-launchers, grappling hooks and ladders on the two boats.
In order not to tip off any other pirates about French operations, he declined to say when or where the hostages were taken into French custody or which French vessel detained them.
The International Maritime Bureau said Thursday that pirate attacks off Somalia's coast have surged 75 percent this year. The Horn of Africa country has had no central government since 1991.
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