Somalis hijack Russian tanker, warship dispatched

[MNeagle]

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates hijacked a Russian tanker carrying $52 million worth of crude oil and 23 crew on Wednesday, prompting Russia to send a warship to try to deal with the incident, officials said.

Pirates who hijacked the China-bound, Russian-owned MV Moscow University tanker 350 miles off the coast of Yemen warned against any rescue attempt, saying this would endanger the Russian crew.

"A Russian warship is moving toward the tanker," Russian defense ministry spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov said. The Chief of the Russian General Staff cut short a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels to coordinate the military's response, he added.

The vessel had been traveling under a Liberian flag from Sudan to the Chinese port of Nigbo with 86,000 tonnes of oil owned by Chinese refiner Unipec, a Russian shipping source said. Maritime experts said the tanker had a deadweight of 106,474 tonnes.

"The crew members locked themselves in the radar room. This ship has been hijacked," Commander Rear Admiral Jan Thornqvist of the European Union's Navfor naval force told reporters in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Somali sea bandits continue to outwit an international fleet of warships in the busy shipping lane linking Europe with Asia, raking in tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.

One pirate who identified himself as Abdi said the tanker was heading to a pirate haven on the coast of central Somalia.

"Any attempt to rescue the ship will certainly endanger the crew. The ship will be docked at Garacad," Abdi told Reuters by telephone, adding it was too early to talk about a ransom.

NO ATTACK PLANNED

Russia's permanent representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said the warship would not attack the tanker as the safety of the crew was the top priority, Interfax news agency reported.

The ship will reach the tanker at around 2100 GMT, he said.

Some oil tankers are sailing around southern Africa and further east into the Indian Ocean away from Somalia's coastline to avoid the Gulf of Aden and pirates who are striking deeper out at sea, shipping experts say.

But many are running the gauntlet through the busy Gulf of Aden shipping lane, where warships operate convoys and have set up transit corridors. The tanker had not registered with the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa, EU NAVFOR said.

The use of mother ships has enabled Somali pirates to strike as far as the Mozambique Channel and off India's coast in recent months, launching smaller boats known as skiffs against ships.

About 7 percent of world oil consumption passes through the Gulf of Aden.

Last weekend, Somali insurgent group Hizbul Islam seized the pirate haven of Haradheere and pledged to take control of more towns in the region, the rebel group said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100505/ts_nm/us_somalia_piracy_russia

[Ironfield]

I don’t understand why these governments don’t take the gloves off and do what the Dutch did and retake these ships with the use of marines. Somalia is and will remain a failed state (just like the rest of Africa) and it seems that no one else is going to protect these crews so maritime laws be damned. This is where being armed is a necessity rather than an option.

-Ironfield

[General of Darkness]

I don’t understand why these governments don’t take the gloves off and do what the Dutch did and retake these ships with the use of marines. Somalia is and will remain a failed state (just like the rest of Africa) and it seems that no one else is going to protect these crews so maritime laws be damned. This is where being armed is a necessity rather than an option.

-Ironfield



These aren't guberment ships, these are commercial ships, and all you need to know is maritime law i.e., no guns on ships. Don't you think if it was legal the corporations would arm the sailors to defend the profit? Other things are at work here.

[InsurgentWolf]

An obvious lack of political willpower. If the governments wanted to get rid of the pirates, they could.

TPTB don't seem to want a peaceful Africa though. Like when Executive Outcomes defeated the RUF in Sierra Leone, they got bombarded with all sorts of accusations and criticism from the ZOGs, eventhough the people of Sierra Leone favored them.

[Occamsrazor]

I wonder what kind of ransom they will demand for releasing the crew.

[Ironfield]

An update on the Hijacking.


By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer – Thu May 6, 4:02 pm ET

ABOARD THE CARLSKRONA – A Russian warship hunted down an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates and special forces rappelled on board Thursday, surprising the outlaws, who surrendered after a 22-minute gunbattle. Twenty-three Russian sailors were freed.

The dramatic Indian Ocean rescue came a day after pirates seized the tanker, which was heading toward China carrying $50 million worth of crude. One pirate was killed and 10 others were arrested, officials said.

The Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov had rushed to the scene following Wednesday's seizure of the Liberian-flagged tanker, Moscow University.

After spotting the hijacked vessel early Thursday, the warship fired warning shots from its large-caliber machine gun, undeterred by the tanker's flammable cargo of 86,000 tons of crude.

Oil tankers don't even allow crew members to smoke on board because of the risk of igniting the cargo, but the Russian navy decided to move in with weapons after determining the crew had taken refuge in a safe room.

"The Marshal Shaposhnikov came near the tanker and after establishing contact with the crew, who were taking cover in the machine area of the ship, opened warning fire from large-caliber machine guns and a 30mm artillery complex," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Special forces troops then rappelled down to the tanker from a helicopter, Rear Adm. Jan Thornqvist, the EU Naval Force commander, told an Associated Press reporter aboard the Swedish warship Carlskrona, which was patrolling 500 miles (800 kilometers) west of the rescue site.

The startled pirates opened fire and a gunbattle ensued that killed one pirate and wounded three before the hijackers surrendered, the Russian state news channel Rossiya-24 said. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Alexei Kuznetsov said a large weapons cache was seized.

The operation's success was due to the surprise factor, said a Russian military officer aboard the warship. "The pirates were taken by surprise. They did not expect such resolute measures from us," Capt. Ildar Akhmerov told RUA Novosti news agency.

The decision to free the ship was made knowing "that the crew was under safe cover inaccessible to the pirates" and that sailors' lives were not in danger, said the ship's owner, Novoship, which is a subsidiary of a government-owned company, Sovcomflot.

Safe rooms, where crews seek shelter, are typically stocked with food, water and communications equipment and have reinforced doors that can only be opened from the inside. Still, at one point, the crew had reported that they believed the pirates were trying to enter the engine room, Thornqvist said.

The raid shows that some governments are taking a more robust stand against pirate attacks, especially when their citizens are involved, said Graeme Gibbon Brooks of Dryad Maritime Intelligence in Britain.

Rescue attempts are easier when crews are locked away and not among the pirates, he said, though military action on oil tankers can be dangerous.

"As for whether live ammunition and oil tankers mix, really it's obvious there's a risk," Brooks said. "In terms of the decision to conduct the assault, these things are always a balance of risk versus benefit."

International military forces have been more aggressively combating piracy, which has flourished off the coast of lawless Somalia into a multimillion-dollar industry.

EU Naval Force ships are disrupting pirate groups and destroying their ships at a much higher rate than in previous years. U.S. warships have fired back on pirates and destroyed their boats in several skirmishes in the last several weeks.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated the special forces for a job done "correctly, professionally, quickly," and sailors' relatives praised the rescue effort.

"It all ended so well that one has a warm feeling of pride for our country," said Ludmila Kotzenko, a sailor's mother.

The pirates were to be taken to Moscow to face criminal charges and Medvedev hinted at tough punishment.

"Perhaps we should get back to the idea of establishing an international court and other legal tools" to prosecute pirates, he said. "Until then, we'll have to do what our forefathers did when they met the pirates."

Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force, called Thursday's rescue "an excellent operation all around." He said the EU force had been working at a tactical level with the Russians, and had talked to the Russian crew by VHF radio and offered support.

In February, Danish special forces prevented the hijacking of a ship after pirates boarded it. Special forces from the Danish Absalon boarded the Ariella while the crew locked themselves in a secure room.

Still, pirates are holding more than 300 hostages taken from ships off East Africa in the last several months.

The U.N. office on Drugs and Crime said this week that the island nation of Seychelles would establish a regional center for the prosecution of piracy. The court will accept the transfer of suspects from the EU Naval Force, while a joint EU-U.N. program will help ensure the country's police, prosecutors, courts and prisons have adequate resources.

___
Associated Press writers Jason Straziuso in Nairobi and David Nowak and Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow contributed to this report.


A great shame they let the pirates go at the end of the day as i've read from other news sources. i suppose its better than a long drawn out trial, food and other accoiated costs etc all on the tax payers coin. What we should do is go back to the ancient maratime laws and deal with pirates as they did back then. . .

-Ironfield

[Occamsrazor]

Hanging from masts is better and cheaper, or tieing cement blocks to them and throwing them overboard.

[Buddha]

This is how it should be done, but the captured should get death for their unwise actions. They should simply be thrown overboard upon capture.

[Occamsrazor]

This is how it should be done, but the captured should get death for their unwise actions. They should simply be thrown overboard upon capture.


The captured pirates, you mean? (Hope so).

[Buddha]

This is how it should be done, but the captured should get death for their unwise actions. They should simply be thrown overboard upon capture.


The captured pirates, you mean? (Hope so).


hehehe yes occams