Navy frees Iran-bound sugar ship from pirates

TEHRAN, April 3 (MNA) – An Iranian cargo ship that had been captured by Somali pirates on March 26 in the eastern Indian Ocean has been freed by Iranian marine forces. The Eglantine, with 23 crew on board, was carrying 63,000 tons of sugar from Brazil to Iran that was hijacked off India's southwest, some 2000 kilometers away from Somalia. According to Reuters, attacks as far away from Somalia as this one are rare. Although NATO, EU and Iranian naval forces are trying to protect merchant shipping, the Indian Ocean is too big for them to effectively patrol all of it. "It is very far east from Somalia," a spokeswoman for the NATO Shipping Centre said.