Hunt of the Sea Wolves

The Post

In the past three days, there have been four pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, and a Danish war ship has been involved in frightening off the assailants in two of the cases, the Danish navy said Sunday.

“For the second time in a period of 72 hours, the Danish war ship Absalon has gone into action against pirates spreading terror in the Gulf of Aden,” the navy said in a statement.

The Danish ship, which is part of an international task force to stem the piracy problem off Somalia’s northern coast, had first been called in to assist the Front Voyager trade vessel, located some 160 nautical miles from Absalon’s location.

“Due to the distance, Absalon decided to send in its armed helicopter,” which arrived on the scene as the crew was desperately using fire hoses to keep pirates from mounting their vessel, the navy said. The helicopter held the attackers at bay until a US war ship could come to the rescue.

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Reuters

An unidentified warship off pirate-ridden Somali waters captured 14 pirates and destroyed their boat, a minister of the northern Puntland region said on Sunday.

Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, fisheries minister for the semi-autonomous region said the pirate vessel met a warship “that we think could be American” and all the pirates on board were captured and their boat destroyed.

However, the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said there was no American involvement in the operation.

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M&C

Malaysia’s navy has deployed three ships to the Gulf of Aden in Yemen to protect the country’s merchant ships following an increase in the frequency of pirate attacks in the area, officials said Friday.

Several ‘military and logistics aid’ belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force has also been deployed to monitor Malaysian ships in the Gulf of Aden, said air force operations commander Rodzali Daud.

‘Yes, we do deploy our assets there, including to assist in the operations by the Royal Malaysian Navy,’ Rodzali was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

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Times Online

Somali gunmen are demanding a $1 million ransom for a retired French couple captured aboard a yacht sailing through the pirate-ridden waters of the Gulf of Aden. Maritime officials said that an armed gang was sailing the Carré d’As towards a remote fishing village used as a buccaneer den.

Meanwhile a hijacked Egyptian vessel was also reported to be on a heading for Eyl, in the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland, where as many as ten other captured vessels are lying at anchor.

There has been a record haul this year for the pirates. They have attacked more than 30 vessels off Somalia’s lengthy coastline in a racket worth millions of pounds.

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Eleven agents from various divisions of Homeland Security and two foreign governments were gathered around the long black oval table in the large conference room. Agent Parris quickly scanned the room, as was his habit. Even in this room, probably one of the safest and most secure in the world, he had a need to know every escape route. Attention to such details had saved his life on more than on occasion.

He knew a few of the others and they exchanged quick glances. He noticed a tall, bearded Indian studying him. But he was not as brazen as the American, who was studying him.  

            Everyone looked up as Under Secretary Stone and Langella entered.

            “Please, everyone take your seats,” Stone said.

            As they slipped into their seats, Langella went to the front of the room. A flat screen monitor slid silently down from the ceiling. A photo of the Eastern Explorer came up on the screen. Langella hit the play button on a tape recorder. They heard the excited voice of the ship’s radioman, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Eastern Explorer! We are being boarded by heavily armed pirates…”

            Parris and a couple of the other agents exchanged looks at the mention of pirates. The radioman’s voice continued, “…five miles off the coast of Zamboanga City,

            A metallic clang interrupted the radioman’s urgent call for help, then he tried to finish, “…is the Eastern Explorer…”

            An explosion ripped from the Bose speakers startling most at the table, but one of the women was clearly disturbed by the sound of machine gun fire, followed by the cry of pain as the radioman was murdered. Then there was the static, which was even more ominous than the sounds of carnage that preceded it.

Reuters

Somali pirates have hijacked yet another ship and are taking it and a French yacht with two French nationals onboard to their remote coastal base, a regional government official said on Thursday.

Gunmen from the Horn of Africa nation are currently holding about 10 vessels for ransom at Eyl, a lawless former fishing outpost now used by gangs behind a sharp rise in attacks at sea.

“The pirates are sailing to Eyl with the French yacht and another Egyptian ship that they hijacked last night,” Hassan Muse Alore, the minister for minerals in northern Somalia’s Puntland region, told Reuters by telephone from Eyl.

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Strategy Page

The drought, and disruptions caused by ongoing clan warfare, have led to half the population of southern Somalia (south of Somaliland and Puntland) being dependent on foreign food aid to survive. While most Somalis realize the importance of this food supply, there are hundreds of armed groups in the country, and dozens of them see no problem with preying on the food aid operations (demanding bribes at roadblocks, stealing food trucks and plundering foreign aid worker compounds, or kidnapping aid workers for ransom.)

Meanwhile, the piracy situation off the northern coast has gotten more serious. The Gulf of Aden is one the busiest shipping lanes in the world (with nearly ten percent of all traffic). Each month, 1500-1600 ships pass the northern coast of Somalia. So far this year, 3-4 of those ships have been seized by pirates each month. That’s one ship out of every 400-500. But with the pirates getting more and more ransom money for each ship, the number of pirate groups operating in the Gulf of Aden is increasing.

It’s believed that at least three fishing trawlers (able to stay out for weeks at a time, and carry speed boats for attacks) are acting as mother ships for the pirates. Most merchant ships are wary of pirate operations, and put on extra lookouts, and often transit the 1,500 kilometer long Gulf of Aden at high speed (even though this costs them thousands of dollars in additional fuel). The pirates seek the slower moving, apparently unwary, ships, and go after them before they can speed up enough to get away. For the pirates, business is booming, and ransoms are going up. Pirates are now demanding $2-3 million per ship, and are liable to get it for the much larger tankers and bulk carriers they are now seizing.

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Maritime Global Net

INTERNATIONAL Maritime Bureau director Pottengal Mukundan has called for warships of navies operating in the Gulf of Aden to take a much more interventionist role against pirates operating from bases in Somalia. He was speaking against the background of a surge in hijackings of large merchant ships, including a 55,000 dwt bulker and two 30,000 dwt tankers owned by MISC. The Malaysian-based company has now stopped its vessels from sailing into the region until they can be better safeguarded.

Capt Mukundan told Anderimar Shipping News: “The response has to rely upon the available assets to deal with this problem. The government of Somalia cannot deal with it. The neighbouring states don’t have the the resources needed which only leaves the Coalition naval units that can do something about this problem. We know these naval vessels are doing their best given the limited resources they have against their military priorities.

“However in this highly trade-dependent world we feel governments should give a higher priority to their naval forces to protect major trade routes. The Gulf of Aden is a vital international trade route and it is intolerable for it to be disrupted by pirates in this way.

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Global Nation

Pirates have seized a French yacht and its crew off the dangerous northern Somali coast, a minister from the country’s semi-autonomous Putland region told Agence France-Presse Wednesday.

The French foreign ministry confirmed the incident, saying that two French people were aboard the sailing vessel.

“We are getting information that the French ship was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden area and it is coming towards Eyl coastal village,” said Hassan Alore, Puntland’s natural resources minister.

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USA Today

Government forces pounded rebel defenses with airstrikes, helicopter attacks and ground assaults as heavy fighting across northern Sri Lanka killed 47 Tamil Tiger fighters and left 13 soldiers dead or missing, the military said Wednesday.

A rebel affiliated website claimed the Tamil Tigers had killed as many as 75 government soldiers in the recent fighting.

The intense battles came amid a punishing government thrust into rebel-held territory in recent weeks that has forced the guerrillas to abandon large parts of their de facto state and a succession of key bases and towns to the advancing military offensive.

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