November 10, 2008 - The European Union launched Monday a security operation off the coast of Somalia -- its first-ever naval mission -- to combat growing acts of piracy and help protect aid ships. Dubbed Operation Atalanta, the mission, endorsed by the bloc's defence ministers at talks in Brussels, will be led by Britain, with its headquarters in Northwood, near London. "Britain is a great military power, it's a nice symbol that this operation be commanded by a British officer and from a British headquarters," French Defence Minister Herve Morin said, after chairing the meeting. "It is a great symbol of the evolution in European defence, and I would say, of its coming of age," he told reporters. The so-called EUNAVOR operation will be made up of at least seven ships, three of them frigates and one a supply vessel. It will also be backed by surveillance aircraft. It will include contributions from eight to 10 countries including France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain, with Portugal, Sweden and non-EU nation Norway also likely to take part. "Our participation in the Somalia project is an important one," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters. "This is obviously a very challenging project but one that European leaders are approaching with real humility as well as determination," he said. The EU initiative was taken after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed urged Somalis and the international community to combat rising piracy. Meanwhile, the Danish operator of a cargo ship seized off the Somali coast by pirates last week with 13 crew members on board said it had received demands from the hijackers Monday. "We have been contacted by the pirates who spelt out their demands. I do not want to say anything else at the current time for the security of the crew," the head of Clipper Projects, Per Gullestrup, told AFP. The International Maritime Bureau said 63 of the 199 piracy incidents recorded worldwide in the first nine months of this year occurred in the waters off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. The Somali figure is almost double that of the same period last year. Under the mission's rules of engagement, EU nations that capture any pirates will not be allowed to hand them over to a state where suspects could face the death penalty, torture or degrading treatment. (From AFP)