A Portuguese frigate captured 19 Somali pirates after foiling an attack on an oil tanker but released them all, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation officials said Saturday.
Commander Chris Davis, from the control centre for the NATO mission protecting merchant ships off Somalia, said the frigate Corte Real launched a helicopter Friday after being informed of an attack on the tanker, the Bahamas-flagged Kition.
The helicopter pursued the pirates back to their mother ship, a fishing boat which was later boarded and weapons including grenade-launchers and explosives were seized, Davis said.
However a Portuguese officer with the NATO force in the Gulf of Aden, Santos Ferreira, told TSF radio that the 19 pirates captured had been released "after contact was made with Somali national authorities."
Davis said in another incident on Thursday a Turkish vessel, the Christina A, was attacked by pirates in two boats off the Kenyan port of Mombasa, but managed to shake them off by increasing speed to 20 knots.
Somali pirates said Saturday they had captured two ships over the past few hours, including a Ukrainian vessel that was headed to Iran.
The Kenyan-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme for its part said pirates had hijacked a British-owned bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean, 250 nautical miles southwest of the Seychelles.
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