
The international coalition fighting piracy in the western Indian Ocean is stepping up its presence after recent attacks, it said last Monday.The coalition cited recent attacks against merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandeb (Yemen-Djibouti-Eritrea straight) by small, high speed boats using small arms, rocket propelled grenades, and significant explosives on October 2016 and last month. Although the attacks were unsuccessful, “they demonstrate a new threat to the maritime community.”In response, the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) plans to…