The Russian destroyer RFS Admiral Levchenko on Monday started escorting a convoy of 10 commercial ships through pirate-infested waters off the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa, a Navy spokesman said.

"A total of 46 Russian nationals are part of the ships' crews being escorted," the spokesman said.

A task force led by the RFS Admiral Levchenko, an Udaloy class guided-missile destroyer of the Northern Fleet, arrived in the Gulf of Aden on July 3 to join the international anti-piracy mission near Somalia. The Russian mission also includes the Olekma tanker and the SB-36 tugboat of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

The SB-36 tugboat thwarted on August 3 an attack of two pirate boats on the Russian-flagged Dafna tanker in the southern part of the Red Sea.

According to the London-based International Maritime Bureau, the number of pirate attacks worldwide decreased in the first half of 2010 by 34% year-on-year mostly due to the ongoing anti-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden.

The Russian Navy has maintained a presence off the Horn of Africa with warships operating on a rotation basis. Russia joined international anti-piracy efforts off the Somali coast in October 2008.

MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti)