Iranian warships opened fire on suspected pirate boats in the Gulf of Aden to prevent an attempted hijack of three Iranian commercial vessels, a navy commander said on Saturday.

'After the boats ignored warnings, the pirates were sent fleeing by our shooting and they left the area,' state radio quoted Fariborz Qaderpanah as saying. He said the incident took place on Friday.

Since May, Iran has deployed a flotilla of warships into the Gulf of Aden to protect its commercial vessels and its oil tanker fleet, the largest in the Middle East.

Piracy is still rampant off the Horn of Africa, with sea gangs defying the foreign navies patrolling the strategic shipping lanes linking Asia with Europe. – Reuters