MANAMA: The US Fifth Fleet announced the launch of a new international naval force to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean after a wave of hijackings off the coast of Somalia.

“The Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) has established Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) specifically for counter-piracy operations,” the Bahrain-based fleet said in a statement on Thursday.

US Navy Rear Admiral Terence McKnight has been named commander of the task force, which is expected to be “fully operational by the middle of January,” according to the statement.

CMF Commander, US Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, said in the statement that the new task force would focus exclusively on the fight against increasingly bold acts of piracy being carried out by pirates operating from largely lawless Somalia.

“Some navies in our coalition did not have the authority to conduct counter-piracy missions,” the statement quoted Gortney as saying. The new taskforce would allow other countries to “support our goal of deterring, disrupting and eventually bringing to justice the maritime criminals involved in piracy events,” he added.

The Fifth Fleet said that the US ships were the only ones taking part in the new task force, however other nations were expected to announce their participation soon.

“Right now the US is the only one in CTF-151 but we anticipate other nations will join in the near future and they will announce in their own time,” Lieutenant Stephanie Murdock of the Fifth Fleet public affairs office told AFP by phone.

She added the task force comprised three ships, led by USS San Antonio, and two aircraft.—AFP