PARIS — After a chase on the high seas and exchanges of gunfire between private security contractors and pirates off Somalia, the European Union Naval Force released six men who had tried to commandeer a cargo ship heading for Mogadishu, the naval force said Thursday.

The six were freed because the cargo ship’s captain declined to identify them for the purposes of legal action, according to naval force spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour. They were captured after private contractors aboard the ship, the Almezaan, repulsed two attempts to commandeer the vessel and killed a seventh attacker in the process, according to the naval force.

— From wire reports