Via WarNewsUpdate:
Dutch Marines Abseil On To A Hijacked Cargo Vessel To Rescue Its Crew And Arrest 10 Somali Pirates -- The Daily MailIf you want to hear more about the Dutch, two weeks ago on Midrats we had Hans de Vreij, the Netherlands correspondent at Jane's Defence Weekly. You can hear the archive file here.
Firearms at the ready, six Dutch marines abseil from a Lynx helicopter on to the deck of a cargo vessel being held to ransom by ruthless Somali pirates.
These pictures capture the precarious moment the commandos boarded the German merchant ship, the MV Taipan.
Minutes later they arrested the pirates and freed the ship's 15-strong crew.
Hat tip YankeeSailor on Twitter.
15 comments:
Tromp trumps pirates again!
puns aside great job!
Well the Tromp is going home soon, HNLMS Johan de Witt will replace her, though as a combined Dutch-Maltese mission. (Which explains a special Maltese interest in what Dutch ships are up to there). Information about whirlybirds aboard seems to be classified somewhat, may be coincidence. More amphibian navy news expected soon!
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Some additional details:
- For the sake of a rapid intervention, HNLMS Tromp temporarily 'left' the EU NAVFOR chain of command and acted under national authority.
- The marines that boarded MV TAIPAN belong to an elite counter-terrorism unit within the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps. It's called 'Unit Interventie Mariniers' (UIM).
- Added is a picture of the UIM team on board of HNLMS Evertsen, taken by me last November in the Gulf of Aden.
Do they practice the same catch-and-release program so popular here in the US?
...and after capture, those ruthless pirates were disarmed, fed, and released.
Educated guess: Yep, Catch, ask if anybody involved wants a couple of pirates for prison population, get told NO, release them.
Too add... Recent news has a U.S. (yes a U.S.) DDG taking out a mother ship, as in fire! Nice shooting boys. Also, an FFG took down a set of pirates as well. Nice to see they still can do nice things (compliments to the crew) even though they are neutered.
I wonder how much diversity played a role here.
Be still, my heart! Can I say they're pretty darn hot!
those are the guys famous from 70's siege of school and train? heard they are highly professional elite on par with SAS and GSG-9
Hmm, on the side of pirates, no diversity at all...
maybe it is affecting THEIR efficiency?
A [S]ierra [H]otel performance by the Dutch!! Good show!!
OT, but
http://militarytimes.com/news/2010/04/ap_seals_charged_040610/
false statement charges dropped on a couple of the SEALs. Maybe they can get back to work and taking down pirates. Or is that not what our Navy is about?
This photo demonstrates why I was always happy to have a RNLN ship in the screen.
Germany on Friday confirmed it will try the 10 pirates currently detained o/b of HNLMS Tromp. The Hamburg Public Prosecutor's Office is expected to issue an arrest warrant.
Yes they are, although they were called differently back then. It is (understandably) a highly secretive unit. The last time I can remember they were mentioned in the media was in 2004, when they were involved in the arrest of two Dutch jihadists in The Hague.
While o/b of HNLMS Evertsen, I took some video pics during of one of their drills, see http://ow.ly/1wM09. Note the white-clad BBC cameraman, who was asked whether he had steady nerves - they were using live ammo.
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