The Dutch navy has captured seven suspected Somali pirates and freed 20 captives in the strategic Gulf of Aden shipping lane.
Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes of the Dutch Navy said they had intercepted a request for assistance from a Greek-owned ship from the Marshall Islands, the Handytankers Magic, that had fallen victim to a pirate attack.
He said that the suspected pirates were identified and disarmed and the 20 captives were released.
NATO spokesman Commander Chris Davies said the Dutch pursued the pirates to the mothership and captured them.
He confirmed that the marines found weapons and ‘evidence of other pirate paraphernalia’.
Meanwhile, pirates have seized a Belgian-registered ship, carrying a 10-member international crew, and are taking it to a coastal base.
It is believed to be headed to the port of Haradheere.
A Belgian government crisis centre spokesman said the ship, a dredging vessel, sent an alarm signal around 4.30am Irish time and another one around 30 minutes later, when it was some 600km from the Somali coast and heading for the Seychelles.
There has been no contact with it since.
Reportedly the ‘silent’ alarm signal sent was not one that was used for technical problems.
The ship, the Pompei, belongs to the Jan de Nul Group.
The Belgian government was using diplomatic and military channels to find out what had happened and decide on further action.
Elsewhere, US cargo ship captain Richard Phillips has returned home to a hero's welcome after surviving capture by Somali pirates and a bloody rescue.
Capt Phillips touched down in Burlington, Vermont, aboard a corporate jet operated by his shipping company Maersk.
The 53-year-old bearded merchant sailor, hailed for giving himself up as a hostage to pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew and ship, beamed as he embraced his family.
In his first public comments since his ordeal, he praised the military's elite SEAL commandos for his rescue and insisted he wasn't the real hero.
‘I'm a seaman doing the best he can just like all of the other seamen out there, he said.
‘The first people I want to thank are the SEALs. They're the superheroes, they're the Titans they're the impossible men doing an impossible job, and they did the impossible with me’, he said.
Capt Phillips was then taken by police escort to his house in Underhill, Vermont.
A Maersk representative said it was not clear when Capt Phillips might go back to sea.
His return drew a line under the incident that began 8 April when Somali pirates swarmed the US-flagged Maersk Alabama, a merchant vessel delivering aid to Africa.
The Maersk Alabama saga captured the world's attention and put new focus on the problem posed by low-tech pirates to some of the world's most strategic shipping lanes.
The incident was highly unusual because the unarmed, all-American crew fought back and prevented the pirates from taking control of their vessel.
However, Capt Phillips was kept hostage while the rest of the crew was able to escape unharmed.
He and four pirates were then marooned in a lifeboat, shadowed all the time by US naval forces.
The captain attempted to escape but was caught. He was then rescued after snipers from the SEALs special forces shot dead three of the pirates at night.
The fourth pirate was already aboard the warship and was detained.
The 19 other crew arrived safely in Washington on Thursday.
They could have one final confrontation with their pirate foes, albeit in a courtroom, with reports that a surviving assailant may be sent to the US to stand trial.
In that case, the US sailors would almost certainly be called as witnesses.
