Israeli Navy to partake in Turkish exercise

In a sign that tension between Jerusalem and Ankara has cooled down, two Israeli Navy missile ships will sail to Turkey next week to participate in the annual Reliant Mermaid search-and-rescue naval exercise.

The maneuvers will be held in the Mediterranean Sea together with the Turkish and American forces. The exercise, the first joint one with Turkish forces since relations with Ankara grew tense during Operation Cast Lead, will begin on August 17.

Several months after the January war, OC Ground Forces Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi said in a lecture that Prime Minister Recep Erdogan needed to "look in a mirror" - and see the Armenian genocide and Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus - before criticizing Israel.

Mizrachi's comments were negatively received in Ankara, particularly by the Turkish military, which is a strategic partner to the IDF. Since Operation Cast Lead, the IAF - which regularly flew over Turkey for training - has yet to deploy there and even sat out of a large-scale aerial exercise called Anatalian Eagle, which was held in June, and which it had attended in previous years.

The Reliant Mermaid exercise is aimed at improving coordination between the Israeli, US and Turkish navies. Part of the challenge is for all three navies to communicate in joint search-and-rescue operations that could arise in the future.

Turkish navy commandos capture pirates off Somalia

Turkish commandos captured five pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Friday as part of a NATO mission to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia, the military said.
The navy commandos, aided by a helicopter, raided a skiff as the pirates on board were about to launch an attack on a ship.

NATO member Turkey has sent a warship to the Gulf of Aden under an international mission deployed off Somalia since the turn of the year to try to prevent attacks.

Somali sea gangs, operating in the strategic shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe, have made millions of dollars in ransom from hijacking vessels in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

Piracy has ballooned off the Somali coast in recent years where the sea gangs continue to defy foreign navies patrolling the vast shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe.