[Stu]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7733482.stm

Pirates have seized a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast and are steering it towards Somalia, the US Navy reports.

The US-bound tanker was captured on Saturday some 450 nautical miles (830km) south-east of Mombasa, and is now approaching the Somali port of Eyl.

The Sirius Star is carrying its full load of 2m barrels - more than one-quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output.

Its international crew of 25, including two Britons, is said to be safe.

Lt Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet, said the attack was "unprecedented".


According to the Navy, the ship is "nearing an anchorage point" at Eyl, a port often used by pirates based in Somalia's Puntland region.

War-torn Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991.

A BBC correspondent in Mombasa reports that this is the third tanker to have been hijacked in the region.

News of the attack raised crude oil prices on global markets following an earlier slump, Reuters news agency reported.

The capture of the tanker appears to mark a worrying new development, both in terms of the size of the ship and the fact it was attacked so far from the African coast.

Attacks on shipping off the Horn of Africa and Kenya by mainly Somali pirates seeking ransoms prompted foreign navies to send warships to the area this year.

A number of vessels and their crews have been held captive for months, including the Ukrainian freighter MV Faina, seized in September.

[Lucky]

It always amuses me when people react to "pirate" stories because it seems so obvious to me that "pirate" is basically the same thing as "hijacker" or "thief."

[Stu]

Nah, this clearly counts. Per M-W.com:

Main Entry:
pi·ra·cy Listen to the pronunciation of piracy
Pronunciation:
\ˈpī-rə-sē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural pi·ra·cies
Etymology:
Medieval Latin piratia, from Late Greek peirateia, from Greek peiratēs pirate
Date:
1537

1: an act of robbery on the high seas ; also : an act resembling such robbery
2: robbery on the high seas

[Lucky]

I'm not saying they aren't pirates. I'm just saying it always amuses me that people assume pirates don't exist. Because we associate pirates with eyepatches, parrots, and frilly shirts we apparently assume thieves stopped trying to steal shit on the ocean just because technology and wardrobes changed.

[salmonjunkie]

terrible radio dj this morning talked about this and was going about how she hopes they all look like Johnny Depp.



Yar.

[Habs]

Somalia has been an hell hole for two decades now. But if they start attacking tankers, I'm sure something will be done, at least to make the seas safe.

[salmonjunkie]

Guess the oil tanker didn't have any rum:

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_re_af/ml_piracy

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in crude anchored the ship within sight of impoverished Somali fishing villages Tuesday, while other bandits took control of an Iranian cargo ship — the seventh vessel hijacked in 12 days.

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that it will join the international fight against piracy, and Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the hijacked Saudi oil supertanker by force if necessary.

But with naval forces unwilling to intervene, shipowners in past piracy cases have ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargos and crew.

The latest ship seized was a bulk cargo carrier flying a Hong Kong flag and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the status of the crew and cargo was not known.

The International Maritime Bureau on Sunday reported five hijackings since Nov. 7, before the hijackings of the Saudi and Iranian ships were announced.

The U.S. and other naval forces decided against intervention in the seizure of the supertanker. NATO said it would not divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the Saudi supertanker, the MV Sirius Star. The tanker was seized over the weekend about 450 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast.

Never before have Somali pirates seized such a giant ship so far out to sea — and never a vessel so large. The captors of the Sirius Star anchored the ship, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members, close to a main pirate den on the Somali coast, Harardhere.

"As usual, I woke up at 3 a.m. and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles off the shore," said Abdinur Haji, a fisherman in Harardhere.

"I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship."

He said two small boats floated out to the ship and 18 men — presumably other pirates — climbed aboard with a rope ladder. Spectators watched as a small boat carried food and qat, a narcotic leaf popular in Somalia, to the supertanker.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called the hijacking "an outrageous act" and said "piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together."

Speaking during a visit to Athens on Tuesday, he said Saudi Arabia would join an international initiative against piracy in the Red Sea area, where more than 80 pirate attacks have taken place this year.

He did not elaborate on what steps the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers. Saudi Arabia's French-equipped navy has 18,000-20,000 personnel, but has never taken part in any high-seas fighting.

Abdullkadir Musa, the deputy sea port minister in northern Somalia's breakaway Puntland region, said if the ship tries to anchor anywhere near Eyl — where the U.S. earlier said it was heading — then his forces will try to rescue it.

Forces from Puntland have sometimes confronted pirates, though Somalia's weak central government, which is fighting Islamic insurgents, has been unable to mount a response to increasing piracy.

Puntland forces, their guns blazing, freed a Panama-flagged cargo ship from pirates on Oct. 14.

The Dubai-based owner of the Saudi tanker, Vela International Marine Ltd., said the oil tanker's 25 crew members "are believed to be safe." The statement made no mention of a ransom or contacts with the bandits.

The Sirius Star's cargo is worth about $100 million at current prices, but the pirates have no known way to unload it from the tanker.

In Vienna, Ehsan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at JBC Energy, said the seizure was not affecting oil prices, since traders were focused instead on "the overall economy."

The U.S. Navy is still surrounding a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weaponry that was seized by pirates Sept. 25 off the Somali coast.

[BC]

While the US, Russia, and everyone else has been twiddling their thumbs about what to do about the Somali pirates, India decided to kick some ass!

(CNN) -- An Indian warship has exchanged fire with a pirate "mother vessel" off the hijacking-plagued Horn of Africa, leaving the ship ablaze, an official said Wednesday.


A file photo shows the Indian frigate Tabar, which was involved in the skirmish.

Indian naval spokesman Nirad Sinha said: "Given the condition we left it in, it would have sunk by now," he said.

The skirmish took place Tuesday evening about 326 miles (525 kilometers) southwest of Oman's Salalah port when the frigate INS Tabar spotted a suspected pirate ship with two speedboats in tow, India's Defense Ministry reported.

Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, of the International Maritime Bureau, in London said: "The pirates have been operating with impunity in these waters, and it is time now, it is well overdue that we send a signal to the pirates that they cannot conduct these criminal operations without sanction."

The defense ministry said in a written statement: "This vessel was similar in description to the 'Mother Vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins."

GO INDIA!!

Heres' the full story: www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/19/somalia.pirates/?iref=mpstoryview