Pirates attempt an attack on US ship
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6098752.ece
Somali pirates who attacked an American freighter with rocket-propelled grenades were not trying to capture it but to destroy it as an act of revenge, one of their commanders claimed today.
The LIberty Sun, carrying a cargo of food aid for Africa’s starving millions, was attacked yesterday afternoon by two speedboats some 285 nautical miles off the Somali coast.
Its crew responded in what is becoming textbook fashion for unarmed crews in the Gulf of Aden and along Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.
They hunkered down in the engine room while the ship’s master increased speed and threw the Liberty Sun into series of twists and turns. The pirates could not get close enough to deploy their grappling hooks.
By the time the USS Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer, arrived two hours later, the buccaneers had given up and headed off in search of easier prey. “She was able to report that the ship and crew were safe,” said Lieutenant Stephanie Murdock of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, stationed in Bahrain.
On board the USS Bainbridge was Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, who spent five days in a lifeboat with a group of pirates before the US Navy Seal snipers rescued him on Sunday, killing three pirates.
“This attack was the first against our prime target,” Abdi Garad, a pirate commander, said today. “We intended to destroy this American-flagged ship and the crew on board but unfortunately they narrowly escaped us.
“The aim of this attack was totally different. We were not after a ransom. We also assigned a team with special equipment to chase and destroy any ship flying the American flag in retaliation for the brutal killing of our friends.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/04/200941516314695536.html
French navy intercepts pirates
The Nivose is part of an European Union anti-piracy force involving warships from France, Germany, Spain and Italy, which aims to aid international efforts to curb a spate of Somali pirate attacks.
Herve Pavy, a French prosecutor, said: “The three Somali pirates apprehended [on April 10] were brought onto national territory and taken into custody on April 14″.
The trio were arrested during a rescue operation by French special forces on Friday to free a group of hostages on board the Tanit, a French yacht.
Meanwhile, the supreme court in Somalia’s northern breakaway state of Puntland has handed down three-year prison terms to 37 pirates detained by the French and US navies.
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escalation of the “piracy” event with the pirates now openly targetting us flagged vessels, with the intent to sink them not capture them..and of course there is no show without “punch”..and the french keep doing their thing..chasing pirates for over 1000kms during the night and landing captured pirates into france from the drama a week earlier..clearly the french and us navies are the main instigatiors in this ramp up, leading to a ground invasion at some stage
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