Pirates off the Somali coast are getting bolder with this evidence of a patrol helicopter under fire.

Marines from the USS Chancellorsville wanted to check the Win Far, a tuna boat captured in April and which the US 5th fleet suspects is being used as a pirate “mother ship”. It added heavy weapons were used during the attack. Normally it sails under the Taiwanese flag with a crew of 30. The ship was spotted just south of the town of Garacad, on the edge of the pirate-infested northern coast. A flotilla of foreign naval vessels off Somalia has failed to quell the rampant piracy, which has affected one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes that links Europe to Asia, used by 20 000 vessels every year.More about: Attack, Somalia

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