More from today's news...
On a Vital Route, a Boom in Piracy - Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post
Quote:
Somali pirates plying the Gulf of Aden in speedboats equipped with grenade launchers and scaling ladders have launched what the maritime industry calls the biggest surge of piracy in modern times, sending shipping costs soaring and the world's navies scrambling to protect the main water route from Asia and the Middle East to Europe.
Pirates from the failed African state of Somalia have attacked at least 61 ships in and around the Gulf of Aden this year, 17 of them in the first two weeks of September alone, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center in Malaysia. That compares with 13 attacks in the area for all of 2007.
"In my time here, I must say, this is the most concentrated period of destabilizing activity I have seen in the Gulf of Aden," said British Commodore Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Maritime Forces, whose members have confronted the pirates repeatedly since mid-August. The coalition, headquartered in Bahrain, includes the militaries of the United States and 19 other nations...
Somalia Pirates Capture Tanks and Global Notice - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times
Quote:
For a moment, the pirates must have thought that they had really struck gold - Somalia-style.
The gun-toting, seafaring thieves, who routinely pounce on cargo ships bobbing along on the Indian Ocean, suddenly found themselves in command of a vessel crammed with $30 million worth of grenade launchers, piles of ammunition, even battle tanks.
But this time, they might have gotten far more than they bargained for. Unlike so many other hijackings off the Somali coast that have gone virtually unnoticed - and unpunished - the attack Thursday evening on the Faina, a Ukrainian vessel bringing military equipment to Kenya, has provoked the wrath of two of the most powerful militaries on the planet.
The United States Navy was in hot pursuit of the ship on Friday. And the Russians were not far behind...
More at the Los Angeles Times, The Times and Agence France-Presse.
This gets better and better
A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates.
Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.
Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”
The vessel’s declared cargo consists of “minerals” and “industrial products”. But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist rebel
http://www.thetimes.co.za/article.aspx?id=851953
Iran has rejected reports that its vessel hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden was carrying a ‘dangerous consignment’.
The pirates were angry because when they opened the cargo of the Iranian ship, several Somalis died, while others lost hair and suffered skin burns, Reuters quoted Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program, as saying.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=178063
See also
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...rrounds_hi.php
Somali Pirates capture Iranian ship
Mysterious Cargo Aboard Iranian Ship Seized by Pirates Raises WMD Concerns
30 SEP 08
Quote:
As Somali pirates brazenly maintain their standoff with American warships off the coast of Africa, the cargo aboard one Iranian ship they commandeered is raising concerns that it may contain materials that can be used for chemical or biological weapons.
Some local officials suspect that instead of finding riches, the pirates encountered deadly chemical agents aboard the Iranian vessel.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430681,00.html
Boy, that was really illuminating...
Did you have a point in posting that?
I seem to have missed your comments on the topic...