Pirates attack another US cargo ship

[general_kill]

BBC NEWS
Pirates attack second US vessel

Pirates have used rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons to attack another US merchant ship off the coast of Somalia.

The pirates damaged the Liberty Sun, which was carrying a cargo of food aid, but were not able to board it.

The ship asked for assistance from the American warship involved in the rescue of a US captain seized last week.

Pirates have vowed to avenge the deaths of those killed in recent rescue operations by US and French forces.

BBC security correspondent Rob Watson says that although it is not clear if the latest attack was intended as the promised revenge, it shows that pirates have not been deterred by military operations.

Despite renewed US calls to quell piracy, four more vessels have been successfully seized over the past two days.

Details of attack

Owners of the Liberty Sun and the US military confirmed reports of the latest, failed attack, which took place on Tuesday at midday local time.

Some details were revealed in an e-mail from one of the crewmen to his mother at her home in Illinois, AP news agency reported.

"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets, also bullets," Thomas Urbik, 26, told his mother, Katy.

"We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no-one is hurt. (A) rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out."

Lt Nathan Christensen, of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, told the BBC that the ship had taken "evasive manoeuvre action" which had prevented the pirates from boarding.

The Liberty Sun had been en route to Mombasa from Houston, Texas, when the attack took place.

After coming under fire, the ship immediately requested assistance from the USS Bainbridge, said owners Liberty Maritime Corp in a statement.

The navy destroyer arrived some hours later, by which time the pirates had gone.

"We are grateful and pleased that no-one was injured and the crew and the ship are safe," said the Liberty Maritime Corp statement.

The ship did sustain some damage, it said, but was able to resume its journey to Mombasa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7999350.stm

Sigh... looks like violence is escalating. Although this makes things more dangerous for sailors, I hope the increased violence will united the international community to fight this problem. Luckily no hostages were taken this time.

 

[Patroklos]

Its to be expected. US actions last weekend pretty much amount to a declaration of war against the pirates. When open hostilities are declared violence always increases no matter who the opponent is, but lucky that increased violence allows for a definitive solution to be pursued.

 

[Shekwan]

Whats the definitive solution to the Somali pirate problem?

Go on another excursion to the Mog?

At least it'd make another good movie

 

[RedRalph]

Its astonishing that they can seemingly defy the US, UK, Russian, Chinese and other navies...

I think people may have been wrong to predict China as the next superpower, maybe by 2035 the UNSC will be dominated by Somali pirate factions

 

[Riffraff]

Its to be expected. US actions last weekend pretty much amount to a declaration of war against the pirates. When open hostilities are declared violence always increases no matter who the opponent is, but lucky that increased violence allows for a definitive solution to be pursued.

I don't think one group of pirates care anything at all about another group and they certainly won't fight for each other.

 

[Ondskan]

I'm so becoming a pirate.


http://www.cristgaming.com/pirate.swf

 

[Patroklos]

Whats the definitive solution to the Somali pirate problem?

Go on another excursion to the Mog?

At least it'd make another good movie

I don't think one group of pirates care anything at all about another group and they certainly won't fight for each other.

The solution is to make piracy, as a buisness venture, unprofitable. Somali piracy has become popular because it is seen as easy money. They are not motivated by ideology. Once we start killing/arresting them on a regular basis as well as making then need more armaments and equipment to successfully hijack its popularity with the coastal population will decline.

We could have avoided this by not acting like raging panssies about piracy in the first place, but that is neither here nor there now.

 

[Shekwan]

Have various nations not been trying that? Were they patrolling the area with the intention of telling them off?

 

[Patroklos]

Have various nations not been trying that? Were they patrolling the area with the intention of telling them off?

For all intents and purposes, yes.

It was a UN mandate after all

 

[Shekwan]

Damn it! Its a good thing we've got the USN now to do some Ass Kickin'! Round 'em up!

 

[Patroklos]

Damn it! Its a good thing we've got the USN now to do some Ass Kickin'! Round 'em up!

I am glad multiple nations have decided to take this threat seriously (don't forget the French raided a hijacked ship and killed some pirates recently too), but alas the USN was twiddling its thumbs with the rest of CTF151 for the last decade as well.

 

[RedRalph]

I am glad multiple nations have decided to take this threat seriously (don't forget the French raided a hijacked ship and killed some pirates recently too), but alas the USN was twiddling its thumbs with the rest of CTF151 for the last decade as well.

I'm not looking for an argument, but tell me why? What the hell were they thinking?

 

[Shekwan]

Well it seems the Chinese have unleashed a secret weapon in an attempt to protect their shipping:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/content_11184581.htm

Yep, dolphins.

 

[RedRalph]

Theres an interesting background to this piracy in the wiki article, its not as straightforward as it seems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia

 

[Patroklos]

I'm not looking for an argument, but tell me why? What the hell were they thinking?

One reason is that prior to them engaging in actual piracy these pirates and their boats look exactly like the fishermen and fishing boats routinely plowing the seas of that area.

Another is that Western governments are not willing to take the critisism of hostages being killed or an innocent fishermen being blow away in the process of beating these pirates down.

Another is that we don't give our operational forces the freedom to actually intervene in a timely manor. There is absolutely no reason Obama should have been in any way involved in this incident but thanks to the miracle of modern communications we can micromanage everything rignt down the deck plate. Unhindered initiative is required in those waters.

 

[RedRalph]

you have always told me how the rest of the world is indepbted to the USN (paraphrasing) for keeping the sealanes open, how do you square that wqith this? they havent been keeping them open for a while now, and with all due respect tothe USN, Chinese, Russian etc etc navies, they dont seem to be able to keep them open now, even when they are trying to

 

[Labtec600]

Is violence escalating or is the press just going to now start picking up every single pirate attack? Werent there over 200 hostages by pirates right now (as someone els said on another thread)?

 

[Patroklos]

you have always told me how the rest of the world is indepbted to the USN (paraphrasing) for keeping the sealanes open, how do you square that wqith this? they havent been keeping them open for a while now, and with all due respect tothe USN, Chinese, Russian etc etc navies, they dont seem to be able to keep them open now, even when they are trying to

Please don't tell me you consider the sealanes off Somalia to be closed because of a few dozen hijacks a month at most. THOUSANDS of vessels plow those seas every month, and truth be told most of the vessels the pirates are taking are private yachts and smaller utility vessels like tugs. If you want to say the Gulf or Aden/BAM are closed because of this then I guess the Medeterrainian and Carribean and South China Sea were closed for hundreds of years.

Truth be told the Somali pirates have had no effect on world trade and are really only interesting to us because of the novelty of it and the specific human stories involved. I bet you more commercial merchandise has been stolen in I-95 this year and more people murdered in NYC than hostages taken by the Somali pirates in the last five years.

Do you know why shipping companies are not willing to put security teams onboard these vessels? The same reason they don't put security teams on trucks, not enough of them are robbed to be of consequence in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Patroklos]

Is violence escalating or is the press just going to now start picking up every single pirate attack? Werent there over 200 hostages by pirates right now (as someone els said on another thread)?

The true problem is that once the pirates know holding hostages will not afford them safety or get them cash they will simply stop taking them. Whether this means they will set them adrift in life rafts or just kill them I don't know, I am not sure quite how murderous these people are (they used to be fishermen after all, not thieves). This also means that once merchant mariners know that they may be murdered/marooned instead of taken hostage they will be more cautious/resist more actively.

Its going to get more ugly before it gets better.

 

[woody60707]

Theres an interesting background to this piracy in the wiki article, its not as straightforward as it seems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia

Froma beat you too it. He already told us all about the poor innocent pirates, and how it's all the US's fault.

This is very straightforward: No Gov/central authority. --> Fisherman put out by many other nations illegal fishing and dumping toxics (NOT THE US!). --> Fisherman resort to small time piracy as a last resort. --> Small groups start organizing using the pretense of policing illegal fishing to justify piracy. --> Big time thugs and terrorists get wind of the big time money to be made, move in to take over and organize almost all the piracy in the area (with that money used to fund other bad things by those same people).

It's a sad story, but I don't see how its complicated.

And this whole pirates attacking US ships really show how ignorant and brainwash those poor people are. It's just thugs and terrorists using this to rally up their people.