A suspected pirate has been shot dead as private guards repelled an attack on a cargo ship off Somalia, in what may have been the first such incident.That is another way to impact the pirate economic model. Increase risk.
...Pirates had launched an attack on the MV Almezaan. This was successfully repelled by members of an "armed private vessel protection detachment" on board the ship, who returned fire.
A second attack was also repelled and the pirates fled the area, Navfor said.
A helicopter from the Navarra sighted the suspected pirates' boats and ordered them to stop, firing warning shots when they refused to do so.
When a team from the Navarra boarded the vessels, they found three suspected pirates in one skiff and three in the second, along with the body of a fourth man.
If you want to learn more about private security firms and what they do - listen to the interview with Kevin Doherty on Midrats - or read the one I did with him last fall at USNIBlog.
UPDATE: Via Howie @ Jawa;
8 comments:
Maybe there should be a bounty on them? Let privateers hunt them down and wipe them out.
Round up about 200 Cajuns. Put them on Chouest boats. Tell them that Somali pirates are out of season and taste good with rice, hot sauce and lemon. Pirate problem gone in about a month. Forgot: got to make sure there's plenty of wine on board :)
http://www.ecanadanow.com/curiosity/2010/03/24/chili-grenades-to-fight-terrorism/
To that end, Byron... everything goes better with chili peppers!
To paraphrase General Phil Sheridan..."The only good [pirate] is a dead one."
lol-ed at sheer non-PC fun the South Park poked at the whole pirate affair...
Contrast this response to the mighty (and gay integrated) Dutch Navy's recent action against pirates attacking one of their ships...
"Troops aboard the Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp fired warning shots Wednesday off the coast of East Africa as suspected Somali pirates in two small skiffs raced toward their warship, the EU Naval Force said."
"After the pirates realized they had made what spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour called a "rather silly mistake," they turned around and fled. EU Naval Force personnel tracked down the two skiffs and a third suspected mothership, finding ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades on board, said Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force."
"The two skiffs were destroyed, and the pirates were set free on the mothership after it had been cleared of weapons."http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/somali-pirates-try-to-hijack-dutch-warship-then-flee/19405251Silly pirates! Take their popguns and let them go get more! Very effective.
There is no death penalty at all across EU, so what did you expect?
And I think any prison back in Netherlands is heaven compared to Somalia...
Losing tools of the trade is factor of economic balance of piracy too, and life is cheap in Somalia, easier to find some desperate youths than buy new skiffs I think.
Anyway its bad the pirates didnt attack USN ship, there would be a fine Darwin award :)
Give it time...they look more like unarmed merchant vessels every day.
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