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tomahawk6 said:The Indians sank a pirate mothership today.![]()
Indeed, and cudo's to the crew of the INS Tabar.
More on the link
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/468955
Cheers.
tomahawk6 said:The Indians sank a pirate mothership today.![]()
Snafu-Bar said:Indeed, and cudo's to the crew of the INS Tabar.
More on the link
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/468955
Cheers.
Snafu-Bar said:Indeed, and cudo's to the crew of the INS Tabar.
More on the link
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/468955
Cheers.
![]()
- In this Nov. 11, 2008 file photo made available by Indian Navy, Indian warship INS Tabar, right, escorts the MV Jag Arnav ship to safety after rescuing it from a hijack attempt by Somali pirates. The Indian navy says the INS Tabar dedicated to fighting pirates has successfully fought off an attempted pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden, sparking explosions and a fire on the suspected pirate ship late Tuesday, Nov. 18.
(AP Photo/Indian Navy, HO, File)
Indian navy sinks suspected pirate "mother" ship
By Sam Dolnick, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo! News
48 mins ago
NEW DELHI – An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more violent.
Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden, where Somalia-based pirates appear to be attacking ships at will, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.
"It's getting out of control," Choong said.
A multicoalition naval force has increased patrols in the region, and scored a rare success Tuesday when the Indian warship, operating off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a pirate vessel mentioned in numerous piracy bulletins. The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked it to stop to be searched.
"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers," said a statement from the Indian navy. Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts — possibly due to exploding ammunition — and destroying the ship.
They chased one of two speedboats that had been shadowing the larger ship, and which fled when it sank. One was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to the statement.
Larger "mother ships" are often used to take gangs of pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water, and can be used as mobile bases to attack merchant vessels.
Last week, Indian navy commandos operating from a warship foiled a pirate attempt to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden. The navy said an armed helicopter with marine commandos prevented the pirates from boarding and hijacking the Indian merchant vessel.
Tuesday incidents raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.
"There is no firm deterrent, that's why the pirate attacks are continuing," Choong said. "The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high."
The pirates used to mainly roam the waters off the Somali coast, but now they have spread in every direction and are targeting ships farther at sea, according to Choong.
He said 17 vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew members, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.
Despite the stepped-up patrols, the attacks have continued unabated off Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and has had no functioning government since 1991. Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.
NATO has three warships in the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet also has ships in the region.
But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the 5th Fleet said naval patrols simply cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.
"Given the size of the area and given the fact that we do not have naval assets — either ships or airplanes — to be everywhere with every single ship" it would be virtually impossible to prevent every attack, she said.
The Gulf of Aden connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles (kilometers) and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa.
The Thai boat, which was flying a flag from the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati but operated out of Thailand, made a distress call as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats but the phone connection was cut off midway.
Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of Sirichai Fisheries Co., Ltd. told The Associated Press that the ship, the "Ekawat Nava 5," was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment.
"We have not heard from them since so we don't know what the demands are," Wicharn said. "We have informed the families of the crew but right now, we don't have much more information to give them either."
Of the 16 crew members, Wicharn said 15 are Thai and one is Cambodian.
The Iranian carrier was flying a Hong Kong flag but operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker Saturday.
"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," said Terje Storeng, Odfjell's president and chief executive.
Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, has condemned the hijacking and said it will join the international fight against piracy. Despite the fact that its government barely works, Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the ship by force if necessary.
The supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, was anchored Tuesday close to Harardhere, the main pirates' den on the Somali coast, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members.
Old Sweat said:Whiskey601
Reads a bit like Port Royal, Jamaica in the seventeenth century.
That's all nice for the local economy, but the simple truth is these people are engaged in piracy and/or profiting by supporting piracy. It hardly is a victimless crime and the situation may soon become intolerable enough that the local communities will suffer along with the pirates.
OldSolduer said:Then let them suffer. Get the kids out, then make them pay.
Snafu-Bar said:Then helping with the re-build as per usual.
Cheers.
geo said:We're talking Somalia here
The only place where a UN mission has tucked it's tail between it's legs and withdrawn at the earliest oportunity.
tomahawk6 said:The Indians sank a pirate mothership today.![]()
Pirates push up oil prices
CRUDE prices rose 1. 4% to $55.72 today in New York in reaction to the pirate attack on the Saudi-owned VLCC Sirius Star.
The oil carrier is the largest merchant vessel ever seized and highlights the vulnerability of oil trade routes from the Middle East.
Only last week the International Energy Agency warned that as supply chains lengthen, the security of energy supplies that transit vulnerable maritime routes must become a global concern.
A Bloomberg report indicated that Frontline might divert vessels from the area, following an earlier decision by Odfjell. A final decision has yet to be reached, Jens Martin Jensen, Frontline’s interim CEO, told reporters.
Such a move could delay shipments of oil to both the US and Europe. Cyril Widdershoven, energy analyst at Deloitte Capital Markets, told Bloomberg from his Amsterdam base: “It may take up to four weeks longer for crude to reach its destination if routes are diverted.’’
Although bunker prices have now come down from their summer highs, the extra weeks of sailing and fuel consumption could drive both oil prices and cost insurance freight commodity prices higher.
Sirius Star’s cargo, if fully loaded, would be worth $110M today on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
http://www.fairplay.co.uk/secure/DailyNews...020081118000033
Overwatch Downunder said:If its not happening already, ships in these waters will have their own QRF on board, appropiatly so armed with good comms.
Arrrr, send more of these pirates to Davey Jones's locker, and they will realise its not easy pickings anymore.
Time for some hard corps tolerance teaching sessions for these so called pathetic pirates.
OWDU
GAP said:Not sure where I heard/read it, but one of the reasons most NATO countries do not want to arrest the pirates is that the moment they are taken on-board a nation's vessel, they are effectively are on that country's territory and can claim refugee status....
Agence France-Presse - 11/20/2008 8:53 AM GMT
Russia to send more warships to battle Somali pirates
Russia announced Thursday it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, as the Saudi owners of the Sirius Star negotiated with the pirates holding their oil tanker.
Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, the top commander of the Russian navy, made the announcement according to a report by RIA Novosti news agency.
"After the Neustrashimy (Fearless), ships from other fleets of the Russian navy will head to the region," Vysotsky said, referring to a frigate sent to the area in September.
"This is needed because of the situation that has developed in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates have sharply increased their activities," he said, according to RIA Novosti.
The announcement from Moscow was the latest sign of growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau as "out of control".
Somali pirates who hijacked the Sirius Star said Thursday they wanted 25 million dollars and have set a 10-day deadline.
"We are demanding 25 million dollars from the Saudi owners of the tanker. We do not want long-term discussions to resolve the matter," Mohamed Said told AFP from the ship anchored off the Somali coast.
"The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous," Said added, without elaborating.
The company which operates the Sirius Star has remained tight-lipped about the claims of negotiations.
"We cannot confirm, nor deny" reports of negotiations with the hijackers, said Mihir Sapur, the spokesman of Vela International, a subsidiary of Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco.
But Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, told reporters in Rome on Wednesday: "I know that the owners of the tanker, they are negotiating on the issue."
Seized in the Indian Ocean some 500 miles (800 kilometres) off the east African coast on Saturday, the Sirius Star is now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere, according to local officials.
The super-tanker was loaded to capacity with two million barrels of oil when it was seized along with its crew of 25 -- 19 from the Philippines, two from Britain, two from Poland, one Croatian and one Saudi.
It was the largest ship yet taken by Somali pirates and the attack furthest away from Somalia.
The Indian frigate INS Tabar, one of dozens of warships from several countries protecting commercial shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, sank a Somali pirate ship late Tuesday after coming under fire, navy spokesman Nirad Sinha said.
Pirates use mother ships, generally hijacked trawlers or deep-sea dhows, to tow speedboats from which they launch their attacks with grapnel hooks tied to rope ladders before neutralising the crews at gunpoint.
The incident came as shipping groups reported a new surge in hijackings off Somalia, with three captured since the Sirius Star was taken.
On Wednesday, pirates released another Hong Kong-flagged ship, MV Great Creation, and its 25 crew seized two months ago.
Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting centre at the IMB in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, said "the situation is already out of control."
But the United States, which also has warships patrolling off Somalia, said a military approach was not the answer to a surge of piracy off the Horn of Africa.
"You could have all the navies in the world having all their ships out there, you know, it's not going to ever solve this problem," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.
"It requires a holistic approach from the international community at sea, ashore, with governance, with economic development," he told reporters.
Morrell said at least 18 ships are currently being held for ransom by Somali pirates, along with 330 mariners taken hostage. This year there have been 95 attempted ship seizures by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, 39 of them successful.
The European Union said Tuesday it would launch its anti-piracy operation -- its first-ever -- off Somalia December 8.
But the piracy threat has already prompted Norwegian shipping company Odfjell to order its ships to use the longer, more expensive but safer route around Cape of Good Hope, thus avoiding the Suez Canal and the Somali coast.
tomahawk6 said:In days of old any pirate ship was fair game,I am surprised that these pirate attacks are tolerated.