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The European Union approved a proposal on Friday (March 23rd) to allow its warships to fire at pirate equipment on Somali beaches, and extended the anti-piracy mission until December 2014, AFP reported.

The expanded scope of the EU mission in the Horn of Africa would allow the EU military apparatus to fire at trucks, supplies, boats and fuel stowed on the coast.

The EU's Operation Atalanta has deployed between five and 10 warships off the Somali coast since 2008 to escort humanitarian aid shipments and thwart pirate raids on commercial vessels using vital shipping lanes, according to AFP.

Foreign ministers agreed to extend "the force's area of operations to include Somali coastal territory as well as its territorial and internal waters," an EU statement said.

"Piracy has caused so much misery to the Somali people and to the crews of ships transiting the area and it is right that we continue to move forward in our efforts," said Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, Atalanta's operational commander.

EU officials said no ground troops would be deployed and missiles would be launched from the sea.

"The EU plan is to allow attacks on land installations when ships are assaulted at sea," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo told reporters, adding that "much care" would be taken to avoid civilian deaths.