BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A NATO anti-piracy force will arrive off the coast of Somalia in the next few days with clear rules on how it can take on high-seas bandits, NATO said on Wednesday.
The commander of the force, U.S. Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, told reporters on Tuesday the alliance had still not provided him with rules of engagement.
"They will arrive in the coming days," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said of the anti-piracy ships.
"They will have the rules of engagement that they need ... they will know exactly what they need to do and how they should do it," Appathurai told a regular news conference, adding the rules of engagement, including how and when the mission could use force, would be agreed within a day or two.
Six NATO members have contributed ships, including destroyers and frigates, to a special anti-piracy task force following a request from the United Nations.
The NATO group passed through the Suez Canal last week on its way to the Horn of Africa, where piracy has surged this year, with more than 30 ships seized and ransoms estimated at $18-$30 million have been paid to free hostages.
Appathurai said the group was facing very heavy seas, which had slowed it down.
Britain, the United States and Russia already have a naval presence in the region, but the area is so vast -- more than 2.5 million square miles -- that it is almost impossible for the pirates to be stopped unless they are caught red-handed.
Security specialists say there is a window of only about 15 minutes for a navy ship to respond to a distress call and get to another ship that's being hijacked. Once pirates are on board, there's little, legally, that can be done.
Asked what the NATO group would be able to do, Appathurai said: "This is a very, very complicated thing to do ... pirates don't identify themselves with eye-patches and crooked-hands, it isn't always immediately obvious that they are pirates.
"There will be a number of very competent and very effective military ships coordinating with each other as appropriate to provide presence, to provide deterrence and where necessary and possible to intervene."
"I don't know how the pirates will react to this."
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Charles Dick)
