India's navy hits Somali pirates
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The Indian navy says it has sunk a pirate vessel which one of its warships encountered north of the Somali coast. India's navy is patrolling the waters as part of the international effort to try to deter attacks by pirates on commercial shipping. Damian Grammaticas has more:
The Indian navy is describing the boat it has sunk as a pirate mother ship. It says the Indian naval ship INS Tabar was on patrol in the Gulf of Aden late on Tuesday evening when it encountered what it believed was a pirate ship with two speedboats in tow.
The Indian navy demanded the ship stop for investigation. The navy says the pirates on board were armed with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers, they threatened to blow up the Indian warship and then fired on it. The Indians say they responded.
There was an explosion on the pirate vessel which sank. Some pirates tried to escape on two speedboats. The Indians gave chase and found one speedboat abandoned. The second vanished into the night.
Damian Grammaticas, BBC News, Delhi
Listen to the words
piratea robber at sea
mother shipa ship that provides services and supplies for a number of other ships; a base
encounteredcame close to
in towfollowing/accompanying it (by being pulled along using a chain or rope)
on boardon the ship
rocket propelled grenade launchershand-held, shoulder-launched anti-tank or anti-personnel weapons capable of firing a rocket that has an explosive warhead
to blow upto destroy by explosion
gave chasefollowed (in an attempt to catch)
abandonedleft behind
vanishedescaped, disappeared
TOPIC :
Learning English - Words in the News SOURCE :
Linguistic Studies ** http://languages.forumactif.org/ 
Subject: Learning English - Words in the News 
Fri 21 Nov - 8:35
