Just a year ago, the European Union launched its first-ever patrol mission in foreign seas to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden (AC Vol 50 No 21). Operation Atalanta contributes up to 12 of the 35 warships currently patrolling in a security cordon from Djibouti to Yemen. Other contributors include China, India, Japan and Russia. The United States has warships in the Gulf under Combined Task Force 151, US unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), launched from Seychelles, do reconnaissance, and, in December, the US gave the authorities in Mombasa five Defender power boats, with five more to come in 2010.
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