On February 17, the first Chinese naval escort taskforce successfully escorted 13 merchant ships to sail out of the Gulf of Aden. This is the 21st batch of escort task accomplished by the taskforce. Shown in the picture is the grand 10km-long fleet. (Photo by Li Tang)

　　Qiu Yanpeng, commander of the fourth Chinese naval escort taskforce,said that it was more and more conspicuous that the violent and capricious pirate activities in the Gulf of Aden were carried out in gangs all the time recently. The Chinese naval escort taskforce is adjusting the countermeasures accordingly. Furthermore, the merchant ships passing by are reminded to keep a sharp lookout and strengthen the communication with the military.

　　According to Qiu Yanpeng, since November, under the calm sea conditions the all-time attack feature of the pirates has become increasingly conspicuous. The pirates may commit attack any time, from the daytime to early morning and from the early morning to the night time.

　　Another change of the piracy is that the attack sea area is expanding from the offshore to the open sea, specifically, extending for 500-1000 nautical miles to the east of the Somali coast in the east, to the Mandeb Strait in the west, to the coastal area of Oman in the north and to the Seychelles Islands in the south.

　　Meanwhile, gang attacks are on the rise. The attacks are no longer the sporadic ones, but launched by groups of speedboats in close cooperation from different directions. And the fuel carried by the boats can meet the demand for long-time and long-distance maritime attack.

　　In addition, increased violence is another important feature of the recent pirate attacks. Since November, at least 10 ships said that the pirates ever fired bazzoka and gun at them.

　　By Xu Yeqing and Li Yibao

　　Translated by China Military