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Terrorist
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Somalia
Pirates
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| Update 4/15/2009 Pirates
launched a grenade attack against a second US cargo ship off
Somalia on Wednesday "in retaliation" for the deaths of their
comrades during the rescue of American cargo captain Richard
Phillips. Somali pirates were back to business as usual Tuesday,
defiantly seizing four more ships with 60 hostages after U.S.
sharpshooters rescued an American freighter captain. "No one can
deter us," one bandit boasted. The freed skipper, Richard
Phillips, will return home to the United States on Wednesday,
after reuniting with his 19-man crew in the Kenyan port of Mombasa,
according to the shipping company Maersk Line Ltd. The U.S.
and its allies battled Somalia's pirates on two fronts Wednesday,
with French forces seizing a bandit mother ship and Washington
seeking to keep the marauders from their spoils. Another U.S.
freighter headed to port with armed sailors aboard after pirates
damaged it with gunshots and grenades Update 4/12/2009 Capt. Richard Phillips was
rescued and freed unharmed after being kidnapped by Somali based
pirates. Phillips who had been held
captive for five days in a life boat by Somalia pirates as U.S.
military ships surrounded the area so that the pirates could not
escape with their hostage. Captain Phillips was taken when the pirates attempted to seize
his vessel the Maersk Alabama. Capt. Richard Phillips' crew,
who said they were safe after he offered himself to the pirates as a
hostage, erupted in cheers aboard their ship docked in Mombasa,
Kenya. Some waved an American flag and fired a flare in
celebration. Three of the Somalia pirates were killed in the
rescued and one is being held as a prisoner.
The rescue was a
dramatic blow to the pirates who have preyed on international
shipping and hold more than a dozen ships with about 230 foreign
sailors. But it is unlikely to do much to stop the region's
growing pirate threat which has transformed one of the world's
busiest shipping lanes into one of its most dangerous as a result
of the constant hijackings and actions of the Pirates based in
Somalia..
Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship
anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, said: "Every country will be
treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the
one mourning and crying," he told The Associated Press. "We will
retaliate (for) the killings of our men." Jamac Habeb, a
30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told the AP from one of
Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl, that: "From now on, if we capture
foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we
will kill them (the hostages)." "Now they became our number
one enemy," Habeb said of U.S. forces.
How The Conflict Started
On Wednesday Somalia based pirates attempted to
seize the crew and cargo of the Maersk Alabama, a US based
cargo ship carrying aid for Somalia and Kenya among other
containers. The attack began early yesterday when the
Alabama was hijacked about 300 miles
south-east of Eyl off Somalia's eastern coast. This is the
first U.S. ship and crew that the Somalia Pirates have attempted
to hijack. The first encounter with Americans did not go so
well for the pirates as the 20 man crew who been trained to deal
with such a situation ended up foiling the high seas hijackers
that have been so successful in the past.
The four hijackers armed with Kalashnikovs were successful in
boarding the vessel but the crew was able to overpower one of the
pirates and regain control over the ship. The remaining
three fled off taking the captain, Richard Phillips an
American as a hostage. A spokesman for Maersk, the largest
container shipping company in the world, said that
Phillips was believed to be unharmed at that time. His family had gathered at
his farmhouse in Vermont waiting for news. The Alabama was
the sixth ship to be hijacked off Somalia's Indian Ocean coast in
a week. The surge in attacks has coincided with a return to
calm seas after the monsoon period, and has seen the main pirate
gangs shift their focus away from their usual hunting ground in
the Gulf of Aden, off northern Somalia, which is now patrolled by
at least 15 warships in separate EU, US and Nato-led forces.
According to second mate Ken Quinn, who spoke by telephone to
CNN, the pirates sank their speedboat shortly after boarding the
Alabama early on Wednesday. The crew managed to regain control of
the ship from the pirates by "brute force", according to another
crew member's account. Phillips is reported to have convinced the
gunmen to board the lifeboat after agreeing to go with them, in
order to secure the safety of his fellow sailors. When the
pirates first appeared, the Alabama crew, conscious that the
nearest US naval vessel was more than 300 miles away, took evasive
action for three to five hours to win time, but the four pirates
eventually boarded just before dawn. On April 8, 2009, the USS
Bainbridge was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in response to a
hostage situation. The warship reached the Maersk Alabama early on
April 9. The pirates are reportedly floating nearby in the ship's
lifeboat, out of fuel, while they continue to hold the ship's
captain hostage. It appears Phillips took action as soon as
pirates began to swarm aboard. According to conversations with the
crews family members Phillips radioed his crew and told them
to lock themselves away in a room, then faced the pirates himself.
"He said the pirates were desperate," said Zoya Quinn, the wife of
the ship's second mate. "They were going all over the stairs, back
and forth, trying to find them, and they couldn't."
How Phillips was taken, and then how the crew overpowered the
pirates, is still unclear. At some point, the crew ended up
capturing one of the pirates and making him their own hostage.
"The crew was holding a pirate, and they were supposed to trade
for Phillips. The Somalis didn't go through with their end
of the deal. They kept Richard," another sister-in-law, Lea Coggio,
told the Los Angeles Times.
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History Of
Somalia Pirates |
| Somali pirates have received over US$150 million
during the 12 months prior to November 2008 according to a report
done by the BBC. The seizures of aid ships in one of the
busiest supply channels in the world has been under increasing
threat by both organized and rouge groups that have demanded their
ransoms from both governments and private companies that own the
vessels. Though piracy off the Somalia and Kenya coast has
been an issue since Somalia unrest that followed the civil war in
the war torn lawless country the activity has increased
drastically in the past few years with 2008 being a bounty year
for the high seas thieves. |
 |
| 2005 The
MV Feisty Gas, a liquefied petroleum gas tanker and crew of
12 were seized by Somali pirates. A Hong Kong-based company that
owns the vessel reportedly paid $315,000 to a representative of
the Somali pirates in Mombasa, Kenya, according to a UN report |
| 2006
Pirates hijacked the India-registered
MV Safina al-Birsarat along with its crew of 16 Indians. On
January 22, the USS Winston S. Churchill, an Arleigh Burke-class
destroyer, intercepted the vessel. After warning shots were fired,
the pirates surrendered and all ten onboard were taken into
custody. |
| 2007
Somali pirates with automatic
weapons captured a UN aid ship, carrying 6 Kenyans and 6 Sri
Lankans. On February 27, members of the Somali coast guard
attempted to take back the ship but failed, and 2 coast guardsmen
were killed. The Pirates were in control of the ship for
almost 2 months before it was released. |
| 2007
The Danish-owned cargo ship the MV Danica White was hijacked and
maneuvered into Somali waters. On June 3, the USS Carter Hall, a
Harpers Ferry-class landing ship dock engaged the pirates, firing
machine-gun bursts at the skiffs in tow behind the Danish ship,
but failed to stop them. Following 83 days in captivity, the
crew of five and the ship were released after the owner, H. Folmer
& Co, paid a ransom of 1.5 million |
| 2007
FV Greko 2 a Greek Fishing vessel was hijacked 110 nautical miles
west of Berbera. The Vessel was anchored near Raas Shula, all crew
removed from vessel. |
| 2007
A Japanese chemical tanker, the MV Golden Nori was hijacked off
the coast of Somalia. The destroyer USS Porter, an Arleigh
Burke-class destroyer, sank the skiffs used by the pirates, but
they still controlled the tanker. US and German naval vessels
shadowed the captured vessel and blockaded the port of Bosaso,
where the captured tanker was taken. Eventually, after demanding a
ransom, the pirates freed the ship and its crew of 21 on December
12 after receiving approximately $1,000,000. |
| 2007
The MV Al Marjan, owned by Biyat International, was travelling to
Mombasa from Dubai when pirates hijacked it 10-20 Nm from
Mogadishu |
| 2007
Pirates attacked the North Korean cargo the MV Dai Hong Dan and
captured its bridge. On October 30, the crew regained control of
their ship, killing one pirate and capturing six. Three sailors
were injured in the fight |
| 2008
Pirates captured the Danish-owned Russian tugboat the MV Svitzer
Korsakov. The ship was held near the town of Eyl in Puntland,
until it was released along with its crew of six, on March 18, in
exchange for a ransom of 700,000 dollars. |
| 2008
The MY Le Ponant was seized in the Gulf of Aden. The French-owned
luxury yacht had no passengers on board, but there were 30 crew
members. The FS Commandant Bouan, a French D'Estienne d'Orves-class
aviso, and the HMCS Charlottetown, a Canadian Halifax-class
frigate, were dispatched to the yacht. On April 12 the crew and
the ship were released, apparently after the owner, CMA CGM, paid
a ransom. After the crew was released, French soldiers tracked the
pirates, who were then on land. According to the French military a
sniper in a helicopter disabled the engine of a car transporting
the pirates, while another helicopter landed and captured six
pirates and recovered some ransom money. On April 13 the six
appeared in a French court in Paris and were charged with, among
other things, hostage-taking, hijacking, and theft. |
| 2008
The FV Playa de Bakio was hijacked about 217 nautical miles off
the Somali coast. The vessel is a Basque,
Spanish-registered, tuna fishing boat. According to reports, four
pirates seized the vessel and its crew of 26, made up of 13
Africans and 13 Spaniards. The boat was slightly damaged in the
attack and was anchored off southeast Puntland by the hijackers.
On April 26 the ship and its crew were freed and the SPS Méndez
Núñez escorted the ship to safety. The Spaniards arrived in Spain
on April 30 from the Seychelles, where the African members of the
crew remained. It is alleged that a 1.2 million-United States
dollar ransom was paid. |
| 2008
The Al-Khaleej, a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship was
seized, along with its 16-member Pakistani crew, by pirates off
the coast of Bosaso. The next day, Puntland security forces
stormed the ship, capturing seven of the hijackers, killing one,
and freeing the ship and its crew. On April 30, a Puntland court
sentenced the seven, as well as four collaborators detained after
the raid, to life in prison |
| 2008
The Victoria, a Jordanian-flagged vessel owned by an Emirati
company was hijacked 30 nautical miles off the Somali coast . The
ship was traveling to the Somali capital of Mogadishu and had a
crew of 12 from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Tanzania. On May 23 the ship was released on unspecified terms and continued
on its course to Mogadishu. On the 23rd, after the release
of the ship, Islamic militants attacked pirates in Hobyo,
apparently in response for the hijacking. |
| 2008
The Amiya Scan, a Dutch vessel manned by four Russians and five
Filipinos was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. The ship flies the
flag of Antigua and Barbuda and is owned by the Dutch company
Reider Shipping. The ship was transporting a damaged oil
platform. The vessel was released on June 24 and sailed out of the
port of Eyl. Once far enough from the coast, the ship transmitted
a mayday signal, as two crew members were ill and the ship had no
supplies. |
| 2008
The Lehmann Timber, a German dry cargo ship, was captured on
its maiden trip in the Gulf of Aden. The crew of 9 Burmese, 4
Ukrainians, 1 Russian and 1 Estonian were taken captive. The ship
was released 41 days later, on July 8, after a ransom of
$750,000 was delivered to the pirates near the town of Eyl. |
| 2008
Pirates seized the Stella Maris, a Japanese bulk carrier, flying
the flag of Panama along with its 21 crew members. The ship was
released along with its crew on September 26 after a ransom of
US$2 million was paid |
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2008
The Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with
a 28-member crew was seized when it was delivering plywood to
Aden, Yemen. It was released in October after a ransom was
paid |
| 2008
The Bunga Melati Dua, a Malaysian palm oil tanker owned by MISC
Berhad, and its crew of 29 Malaysians and ten Filipinos was
hijacked by pirates in two speedboats. One Filipino crew member
was killed during the boarding. |
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2008
The German-owned, Antigua and Barbuda-flagged BBC Trinidad was
hijacked. It is released on September 11, along with its 13-person
crew consisting of a Slovakian captain, ten Filipinos, and two
Russians, after a ransom of US $1.1 million is paid |
| 2008
The Irene, a Japanese-owned with a crew of one Serb, two Croatians
and 16 Filipinos was seized. It was released around the same time
as the BBC Trinidad, after a ransom of US$1.5 million was paid.
The ship was held near the town of Eyl |
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2008
The Iran Deyanat was hijacked and brought to Eyl. The
Iranian-owned ship and its crew of 14 Iranians, three Indians, two
Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, possibly Croatian, is being
held for ransom. Pirates have suffered health problems including
hair loss and even death, suggesting that could be carrying
chemical munitions or radioactive materials |
| 2008
The Bunga Melati 5, a Malaysian tanker owned by MISC Berhad was
captured while transporting petrochemicals from Singapore to Saudi
Arabia. The vessel and crew of its 36 Malaysians and five
Filipinos is released on September 27 after a ransom of US$2
million is paid |
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2008
The Carré d'As IV, a 50-foot yacht, was hijacked and its two
occupants, a French couple, were taken captive. The pirates
demanded a million euros in ransom, and the liberation of six
Somalis captured during the Le Ponant incident. On September 16,
French commando frogmen from the Commando Hubert unit, operating
from the frigate Courbet, stormed the yacht as it was being taken
to Eyl. The two captives were freed, while one pirate was killed
and six captured |
| 2008
On the Al Mansourah
Twelve pirates armed with automatic guns and RPGs in a small high
speed craft attacked, boarded and hijacked the ship along with 25
crewmembers. They stole crew's personal belongings and cash.
The ship was ultimately released on 26 September 2009, and it was
last reported that the ship was back in international waters on
route to Egypt. It is not clear if a ransom was paid, but it
appears that the pirates had requested a ransom in the
negotiations with the Egyptian intelligence officials |
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2008
Pirates boarded and hijacked the 26,589 dwt ship underway and 21
crewmembers, 14 Burmese and 8 Koreans, were held hostage. The ship
was released on 16 October 2008 after a ransom was paid by the
owner, J&J Trust |
| More to Be added. |
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