The Indian Navy has rescued two Iranian fishing boats seized by Somali pirates within a day, India’s Defense Ministry said today.

The patrol vessel INS Sumitra rescued 17 crew members from Iran who were on board a boat in the early hours of yesterday, Monday, before responding to another distress signal to free 19 Pakistani nationals who were on board another boat, the ministry said in a statement.

The rescues come amid a resurgence of Somali piracy in the Indian Ocean since last month after years without a major attack.

Pirates it seems to take advantage of the instability around the Red Sea, where the Iran-backed Houthi movement targets civilian ships in protest of what it claims is Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthi attacks have led to retaliatory airstrikes from countries including the United States and Britain, and analysts say they have diverted attention from the threat of Somali piracy.

Somali piracy peaked around 2011, costing the global economy about $7 billion a year, before international naval patrols and armed private guards managed to curb the threat.

Until December, when the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen was seized, there had not been a successful hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.

India’s navy has intervened in response to several recent hacks.

Yesterday, Monday, INS Sumitra rescued the fishing vessel Imam before intercepting the fishing vessel Al Naeemi, which had 11 pirates on board in the southern Arabian sea, the defense ministry said.

Forces from the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Seychelles rescued the six crew members of a Sri Lankan trawler from suspected Somali pirates on Monday, officials said.