Somali piracy surges as the impact of the US-Iran war ripples outwards

The security sources say six international warships are now in the seas close to the Lutuf - two from Turkey and one each from Spain, Denmark, the US and India, something the BBC has not been able to independently verify."There is military equipment on the [hijacked] ship meant for Turkey's operations in Somalia," the Somali government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that the cargo included satellite equipment for a space station that Ankara is building north of the capital.He alleged that Turkey had carried out the second drone strike that killed nine armed men on Sunday."The men who were killed were criminals and I don't have sympathy for them," he said, "but taking it to that level is escalating the situation even more."Turkey's defence ministry has stated that its forces are providing "necessary support" to Somali authorities regarding the incident involving a hijacked vessel in Somali territorial waters, within the framework of their security agreement. But it stopped short of addressing the accusations that Turkey had carried out deadly drone strikes.Publicly the government in Mogadishu has said only that it is aware of the operations against pirate ...