S Korean forces attack Somali pirates

South Korean special navy forces have attacked a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all crew members and killing eight pirates.

“Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages,” AFP quoted Colonel Lee Bung-Woo, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying on Friday.

The military spokesman also said that the South Korean captain of the ship sustained an injury to his stomach during the operation, adding that his conditions were not life-threatening and the other 20 crew members are safe.

The rescue took place about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) off northeast Somalia, he added.

Seoul ordered a destroyer on patrol in the Gulf of Aden to give chase and President Lee Myung-Bak ordered “all possible measures” to save the crew, Lee said.

President Lee praised the troops for the operation, which he described as a “complete success.”

The 11,500-ton chemical carrier Samho Jewelry and the 21 crew members — eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 from Myanmar — were hijacked on January 15 when the freighter was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka.

Piracy has flourished off Somalia’s coast sometimes yielding multi-million ransoms. However, countries have tried to counter the pirates.

In April 2009, a French navy commando team stormed the yacht Tanit. The shootout killed two pirates and one French hostage and freed four French citizens.

Last year, US navy snipers also shot three pirates, who were holding an American captain hostage in a lifeboat after they had abandoned a larger ship, the Maersk Alabama.