Third ship hijacked in a day off Somalia

[WhiteTara]

Source: AP

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — An official says pirates have seized a German ship off the coast of Somalia, the third hijacking in a day.

Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau says the German-operated cargo ship was seized Thursday in the Gulf of Aden off the Somalian coast.

He says the hijacking occurred hours after a Japanese-operated tanker and an Iranian ship off the coast of Somalia were hijacked in the same area.

Choong says three hijackings in a days "is unheard of."

So far seven ships have been hijacked in the important African shipping lane since June 20.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jHMz6_AdORiX-45PUhBtBjZlha0gD92MOBCG0

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when people have nothing left to lose, they do desparate things..3 ships in one day! WOW

[opihimoimoi]

1. We could send some help but I believe we are too busy doing other things....

HELP......sorry

[Marrah_G]

2. These aren't poor folk just trying to make a living..............

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Sounds like the beginning of a James Bond movie

[wuushew]

4. Strange that no position report exists for this vessel

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shiplocations.phtml?lat=23&lon=45&radius=700

Don't large commercial vessels usually report their position history?


name "BUNGA MELATI DUA" call-sign "9MCH4"

[WhiteTara]

6. That makes me wonder what's on that ship

maybe these aren't random, but targeted to take the guns and drugs coming in and going out. What about the other two ships? Any info about them?

[benEzra]

8. This is not uncommon...

read the book Dangerous Waters for a good read on modern piracy. We are unfortunately living in piracy's Golden Age.

If a ship has two or three thousand dollars in cash aboard (between the ship's safe and the wallets of the crew), that is a LOT of money in a country where the average income might be twenty or thirty dollars a month. And your typical U.S. or British owned freighter or supertanker has less armed security than the average Wal-Mart, and the pirates know it. In most cases, robbing a ship is about as hard as robbing a convenience store, if you can get aboard.

[Marrah_G]

10. These ships are being targetted by the Somali Warlords and then being ransomed

The pirates might have once been poor fishermen, but they are now on the payroll of some pretty greedy, nasty ruthless warlords.

[snooper2]

5. modern day pirates

:evilgrin:



Avast, me hearties!
Give me your money or I'll give you a mortar; Aarrr!

[slackmaster]

7. Not quite a mortar, but a very potent hand-held weapon

US M203 40 mm grenade launcher. Normally attaches to a rifle.

[hedgehog]

9. Gee, didn't England and the US used to have navies that made the oceans safe

for commerce?



BTW - I've always maintained that we should have treated the terrorists as pirates both legally and strategically. Treating them as being in a state of war with us is BS.

[WriteDown]

11. Still do....

But how do you stop men on speed boats who can duck in and out of international waters?

[NutmegYankee]

17. Just google Pirates Vs. US Navy.

We are fighting them, but it's hard when they are just running around in speed boats.

I still crack over over the idiots who in a small diesel boat decided to take on a US Navy Destroyer armed with AKs and RPGs. Needless to say, 1 pirate was killed, several wounded, and the sailors were pissed that they had to paint again.

[DemoTex]

12. Why is the dateline Kuala Lumpur?

Doesn't AP have news bureaus closer to Africa?

[Xithras]

13. The International Maritime Bureau's global piracy center is in Kuala Lumpur

Mostly because it's located on the Malacca Strait, which is the most pirate infested stretch of sea on the planet (many ships pick up armed escorts before crossing the strait). Even though this incident was off the African coast, the announcement would still come from the global tracking center.

[dysfunctional press]

14. blackwater may want to look into expanding into the naval security market...

how are the pirates able to board, let alone seize some of these huge ships? it's not like they're doing tarzan swings over on ropes tied to the yard-arms, like the swashbucklers of the movies...

[Doctor Cynic]

15. This explains the cold weather we have this year.

[Trajan]

16. "When people have nothing left to lose ...."

I'm sorry, Sir/Ma'am, but this is not about poor people trying to feed their starving selves, but of criminal organizations with PLENTY of money (enough to buy fast boats and fancy weapons) who simply want to take what doesn't belong to them .... They are common thieves who do not deserve our pity in ANY way ....

[ohio2007]

19. So much for the "Teach a man how to fish" analogy eh ?

[ohio2007]

18. Somali pirates seize 8 ships

Somali pirates seize 8 ships

Nairobi - Around eight ships have been seized by pirates off the lawless Somali coast with gunfire being reported during one of the hijackings, an official said on Monday.

"Around eight ships have been seized, but we believe there were no fatalities," Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

snip

Piracy off Somalia's lawless coast has surged in the last three months.

A total of four ships - from Germany, Japan, Iran and Malaysia - were seized last week alone.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) issued a fresh piracy warning for the region last week and called on international warships to help curb the rising trend.

"The situation in this region is grave," IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement. "These pirates are not afraid to use significant firepower in attempts to bring vessels under their control."

The UN Security Council has approved incursions into Somali waters to fight piracy and coalition warships are believed to have intervened in two recent hijacking attempts.

snip
Pirates, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, use speedboats to pursue their targets.

Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2382261,00.html

British Ship Crew Repel Nigerian Pirates
Mature - Reply by quick capture - Reply by uploading content
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Off the coast of Africa a british ship crew repelled a pirate attack attempt by firing warning shots with a rifle.
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http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=673_1207401975


April 2008
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d0_1208936861

http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=174184