NATO warship seizes 'pirate mother ship' off Somalia

London, Feb 13(ANI): A NATO warship has captured a suspected pirate mother ship off Somalia, NATO's counter-piracy mission has said.

It said that a warship from Denmark had fired warning shots on Saturday, forcing the vessel to stop and its crew to surrender.

Sixteen suspected pirates on board were then held and a weapons cache seized. Two Yemeni hostages were also freed.

"These ships provide the pirates with a floating base. They pose a great threat to the merchant shipping," the BBC quoted the chief officer of the Danish warship, as saying.

"We have now eliminated one of these threats," he added.

It said it believed that the fishing vessel had been hijacked.

The NATO, along with the EU's naval force, has been escorting merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden since 2008. (ANI)