Moscow - (Saba):
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that during a planned Baltic Fleet exercise, tasks were set to liberate a ship seized by terrorists.
Sputnik quoted the ministry as saying in a statement: "Servicemen of the anti-sabotage detachment of forces and means of the Baltic Naval Base and a special forces unit carried out an operation to liberate a ship seized by terrorists."
The ministry added: "According to the training plan, a civilian vessel, which included a rescue tug belonging to the Baltic Fleet, was seized by a group of armed men who threatened to deal with the hostages if their demands were not met."
The statement explained that "the Baltic Fleet command decided to dispatch anti-sabotage and patrol boats, as well as speedboats with personnel from the Baltic Fleet's special forces units, to the incident area."
Naval helicopters, carrying assault groups, were used to support the special forces' operations. During this phase of the training, various options were practiced for intercepting a hijacked vessel, evacuating, and providing assistance to victims.
The statement indicated that "Special Forces teams landed on the hijacked vessel from the sea and air, repelled the mock terrorists, and successfully neutralized them. The ship's crew was successfully freed."
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