from various news reports ...

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The MV Chemstar Venus, owned by a Japanese shipping company and registered in Panama, was seized by armed Somali gunmen on Nov. 15 in the Gulf of Aden. On board were five South Koreans and 18 Filipinos. The diplomat, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the ship carrying unidentified chemicals was released Thursday night. There was no immediate word if a ransom was paid.

Ukrainian sailors returned home after four months in captivity after the seizure of their cargo ship, MV Faina, which was loaded with tanks and heavy weapons. The sailors stepped off a plane in Kiev, tanned but exhausted-looking for a tearful reunion with their families on the tarmac. Faina's ordeal began in September, when scores of heavily armed Somali pirates swarmed onboard as it carried 33 Soviet-designed tanks and crates of small arms headed to Kenya. The pirates released the vessel last week, reportedly after receiving a $3.2 million ransom.

Somali pirates, seized 42 vessels last year, mostly in the Gulf of Aden, with attacks peaking between September and November. Somali piracy accounted for the bulk of the 49 vessels hijacked and 889 crewmembers taken hostage around the world in 2008 — the highest worldwide figures since the London-based International Maritime Bureau began keeping records in 1991.

Since the beginning of 2009, at least 22 vessels had been attacked, three hijacked.

The increased attacks led the United States, India, Britain, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and other countries to send ships to the area to protect commercial vessels and quickly rush to their aid. The campaign has just started.

On Feb 11, forces from the USS Vella Gulf, detained seven pirates — the Navy's first arrests. The suspects, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, had tried to board the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel Polaris using a ladder from their skiff.

On Feb 12, an American helicopter from the USS Vella Gulf fired warning shots at gunmen in two skiffs that had opened fire and tried to board the Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya.
U.S. forces boarded the skiff and found weapons including rocket-propelled grenades. Nine pirates were arrested.

On Feb 12, the Russian nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser "Peter The Great" detained 10 Somali pirates chasing an Iranian-flagged fishing trawler. Russian military prosecutors are questioning the men, who were caught on Thursday with rifles, grenade-launchers, illegal narcotics and a large sum of money, the navy said.



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Where is Gen Patton ?


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Somali pirates holding an American on a drifting lifeboat vowed on Friday to fight any attack by U.S. naval forces.

"We are not afraid of the Americans," one of the pirates stated.
"We will defend ourselves if attacked."

Despite their defiant talk, maritime groups tracking the saga -- the first time Somali pirates have captured an American, Captain Richard Phillips of the Alabama -- say a more likely outcome is a negotiated solution, possibly involving safe passage in exchange for their captive.

The gang is also seeking a ransom, friends say.

Four pirates have been holding Phillips, the Captain, since Wednesday after a foiled bid to hijack the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama several hundred miles off Somalia.

The ship's lifeboat has run out of fuel.

Two boats full of heavily-armed fellow pirates have taken to sea in solidarity with the four on the lifeboat, but are too nervous to come near due to the presence of foreign naval ships including the USS Bainbridge destroyer which is up close.

A spokesman from the pirate stronghold in Eyl, Somalia, said four foreign ships held by pirates are heading toward the lifeboat. A total of 54 hostages are on two of the ships — citizens of China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines, Tuvalu, Indonesia and Taiwan.

"Other pirates want to come and help their friends, but that would be like sentencing themselves to death," said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program that monitors the region's seas.

"They will release the captain, I think, maybe today or tomorrow, but in exchange for something. Maybe some payment or compensation, and definitely free passage back home."

Phillips is one of about 270 hostages being held at the moment by Somali pirates, who have been plying the busy sea-lanes of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean for years.

They are keeping 18 captured vessels at or near lairs on the Somali coast -- five of them taken since the weekend alone.

Yet the fact Phillips is the first U.S. citizen seized, and the drama of his 20-man American crew stopping the Alabama being hijacked on Wednesday, has galvanized world attention.


Americans remember with a shudder the disastrous U.S.-U.N. intervention there soon after, including the infamous "Black Hawk Down" battle in 1993 when 18 U.S. troops were killed in a 17-hour firefight that later inspired a book and a movie.




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aside all this, I understand that many of the pirates are "teenagers" with an attitude of being invincible.

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U.S. Navy snipers fired three flawless shots to kill a trio of Somali pirates and free the American sea captain being held at gunpoint, a Navy commander said Monday.

Angry pirates vowed retaliation for the deaths, raising fears for the safety of some 230 foreign sailors still held hostage in more than a dozen ships anchored off the coast of lawless Somalia.


"From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)," Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl. "(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy."




U.S. Defense officials said snipers got the go-ahead to fire after one pirate held an AK-47 so close to Capt. Richard Phillips' back that the weapon appeared to be touching him. Two other pirates popped their heads up, giving snipers three clear targets, one official said.



Asked how the snipers could have killed each pirate with a single shot in the dark, Gortney described them as "extremely, extremely well-trained." He told NBC's "Today" show that the shooting was ordered by the captain of the Bainbridge. The SEALS arrived on the scene by parachuting from their aircraft into the sea, and were picked up by the Bainbridge, a senior U.S. official said.




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alright go Navy! the seals are bad a**, i leave for navy bootcamp in 2 months.

 

At a Washington news conference, Obama said: "I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region and to achieve that goal, we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks."

"We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes," the president said.



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The main reason that military operation was successful.... nobody asked the politicians!

 

I bet many of you thought all this was a new event?
wrong .. read on


======== from public sources ===== October 3 and 4, 1993 ======

The Battle of Mogadishu (also referred to as the Battle of the Black Sea) or for Somalis The Day of the Rangers (Somali: Maalintii Rangers) was a battle that was part of Operation Gothic Serpent that was fought on October 3 and 4, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, by forces of the United States supported by UNOSOM II against Somali militia fighters loyal to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, with support from armed civilian fighters.

The battle is also referred to as the First Battle of Mogadishu to distinguish it from the later Second Battle of Mogadishu. Task Force Ranger, which consisted of an assault force made up of US Army Delta Force, Ranger teams, an air element provided by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, four Navy SEAL operators from SEAL Team 6, and members of the Air Force Pararescue/Air Force Combat Controllers, executed an operation which involved traveling from their compound on the outskirts of the city to capture tier one personalities of the Habr Gidr clan, headed by Aidid.

The assault force consisted of nineteen aircraft, twelve vehicles and 160 men. During the operation, two U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenades, and three others were damaged.

Some of the soldiers were able to evacuate wounded back to the compound, but others were trapped at the crash sites and cut off. An urban battle ensued throughout the night. Early the next morning, a combined task force was sent to rescue the trapped soldiers. It contained soldiers from Pakistan, Malaysia, and the U.S. 10th Mountain Division. They assembled some 100 vehicles, including Pakistani tanks (M48s) and Malaysian Condor armored personnel carriers, and were supported by U.S. A/MH-6 Little Bird, and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

This task force reached the first crash site and led the trapped soldiers out. The second crash site was overrun and pilot Mike Durant, the lone surviving American from that site, was taken prisoner but later released.

Somali casualty figures are unknown, but American estimates are that between 1,000 and 1,500 Somali militiamen and civilians lost their lives in the battle, with injuries to another 3,000-4,000.



======= Commander and Chief: William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton ==============

the 42nd President from 1993 to 2001, inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993.


In a national security policy review session held in the White House on October 6, 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton directed the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral David E. Jeremiah, to stop all actions by U.S. forces against Aidid except those required in self-defense. He also reappointed Ambassador Robert B. Oakley as special envoy to Somalia in an attempt to broker a peace settlement and then announced that all U.S. Forces would withdraw from Somalia no later than March 31, 1994. On December 15, 1993, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin stepped down, taking much of the blame for what was deemed a failed policy. A few hundred Marines remained offshore to assist with any noncombatant evacuation mission that might occur regarding the 1,000-plus U.S. civilians and military advisers remaining as part of the U.S. liaison mission.

The Ready Battalion of the 24th Infantry Division, 1-64 Armor, was sent from Fort Stewart, Georgia, to Mogadishu in the wake of this battle to secure the city and prevent a recurrence of hostilities.

All U.S. personnel were finally withdrawn by March 1995.

There have been allegations that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda movement was involved in training and funding of Aidid's men. In his 2001 book, Holy War, Inc., CNN reporter Peter Bergen interviewed bin Laden who affirmed these allegations. According to Bergen, bin Laden asserted that fighters affiliated with his group were involved in killing American troops in Somalia in 1993, a claim he had earlier made to the Arabic newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi (English:Arab Jerusalem). The Al-Qaeda fighters in Somalia are rumored to have included the organization's military chief, Mohammed Atef, later killed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Four and a half years after the Battle of Mogadishu, in an interview in May 1998, bin Laden disparaged the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia.



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Want your kids to grow up to be lawyers, doctors, pirates, .... ?


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For years, piracy was a middling trade in Somalia, just one way that desperate young men with guns could make a living in a desperately poor land. In recent months, however, with food prices soaring, the interim government careening toward collapse and local authorities powerless to intervene, hardly a day has gone by without an attempt to commandeer a ship.

In September, pirates captured the world's attention by seizing the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship ferrying tanks, grenade launchers and other weapons, reportedly to southern Sudan. In November came an even more brazen haul: the Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker, the biggest ship ever hijacked, loaded with $100 million worth of oil. Both vessels are still being held for ransom.

The U.S. military and NATO have deployed warships to patrol the region, and China said this week that it would send a fleet to join the effort. Also this week, the U.N. Security Council authorized nations to chase pirates onto land, although U.S. military officials are skeptical of that tactic, arguing that pirates can easily blend into the local population.

Many of the pirates are former fishermen who claim that they're retaliating against rich countries for years of illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters, and a small portion of the ransoms is thought to go to local fishermen.

One pirate group in Eyl goes by the name "Saving the Somali Sea," although residents complain that the lion's share of the cash stays in the pirates' pockets.

Ransom payments used to be made via hawala, a money-transfer system that functions as a low-fee Western Union in the Muslim world. As the sums have grown, however, ship owners increasingly rely on helicopter drops from Kenya. Wooden crates packed with cash sometimes fall from the sky in Eyl, like manna to the impoverished civilians barely eking out an existence on dry land.

Money-counting machines like the ones at your local bank — "We have to make sure it's real money," Jama explained — tally up amounts so huge that families who have survived on fishing for generations say that young children now want to grow up to be pirates.

"Whenever we hear that a ransom was paid, children's dreams of becoming pirates just increase," Ahmed said.

It isn't just children who are starry-eyed. Mustaf Mohamed Abdi, a 48-year-old taxi driver in Garowe, marveled at the excitement in town when a band of pirates comes through on a spending spree. If he's lucky, Abdi said, a friendly pirate might tip him with a hundred-dollar bill.

"The pirates are the hottest men in town," Abdi said. "Girls from all over Somalia moved here to marry pirates. But if the girl isn't cute she's out of luck, because the pirates only go with beautiful girls."

~ M c C l a t c h y




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France's La Somme French command vessel is attached by Somali pirates.

La Somme is the French NAVY Command vessel in the Indian Ocean, under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom, overseeing French air, sea and land forces fighting Somali pirates and terrorists.

The task of the officers on the ship is to direct commando operations to free French hostages in the hands of Somali pirates in the region.

The pirates tried to flee when they realized their blunder but were pursued by French forces who, after an hour-long chase, caught one of the skiffs and arrested the pirates.

There was an exchange of fire between the warship and the pirate skiffs. Pirates were armed with Kalashnikovs AK-47s while the French were armed with typical warship heavy weapons.

One of the skiffs managed to get away in the night because La Somme was busy taking custody of the first pirate boat.

According to watchdog Ecoterra International, at least 163 attacks have been carried out by Somali pirates since 2009, with 47 of them successfully hijacked. That translates to approximately a 30% success ratio for the pirates. A number that Operation Enduring Freedom would like to see go to zero.



Photography by French Navy.


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other arrests of Somalian pirates: