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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —
In one of their boldest hijacks yet, Somali pirates have seized a massive, Saudi-owned oil supertanker loaded with crude oil and carrying 25 crew members off the Kenyan coast, the U.S. Navy said Monday.
The hijacking was the latest in a surge in attacks this year by ransom-hungry Somali pirates and highlighted the vulnerability of even very large ships moving through the area. Attacks off the Somali coast have increased more than 75 percent this year.
After the brazen hijacking, the pirates took the ship to a Somali port that has become a haven for bandits and the ships they have seized, a Navy spokesman told the Associated Press.
The tanker, owned by Saudi oil company Aramco and operated by Vela International, is 1,080 feet, about the length of an aircraft carrier, making it one of the largest ships to sail the seas. It can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.
Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of Saturday's hijacking, but he did know how much. He also had no details about where the ship was sailing from and where it was headed.
"The Sirius Star ... was seized by a group of armed men approximately 420 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia on Sunday," a Vela International spokesman said. "All 25 crew members on board are reported to be safe and the vessel is fully laden with crude oil. Vela Response Teams have been mobilized and are working to ensure the safe release of the crew members and the vessel."
While Saudi-owned television station Al Arabiya reported that the crew was released by the hijackers, both the U.S. Navy and Aramco said they had not received such information.
The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and its 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
In a news release sent out on Monday from the 5th Fleet's Middle East headquarters in Bahrain, the Navy said the large crude tanker Sirius Star was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, an area far south of the zone patrolled by international warships.
It was the farthest Somali pirates have traveled so far to hijack a ship, Christensen said.
By expanding their ability to attack so far out at sea, Somali pirates are "certainly a threat to many more vessels," Christensen said.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said there were at least two British nationals aboard the MV Sirius Star, but said he could offer no further details on the ship or what had happened to it.
The Sirius Star was built in South Korea's Daewoo shipping yards and commissioned in March. Classed as a Very Large Crude Carrier, the ship is 318,000 dead weight tons.
An operator with Aramco said there was no one available at the company to comment after business hours.
As pirates have become better armed and equipped, they have sailed farther out to sea in search of bigger targets, including oil tankers, among the 20,000 tankers, freighters and merchant vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden each year.
Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets launchers and various types of grenades.
Raja Kiwan, a Dubai-based analyst with PFC Energy, said the hijacking raises "some serious questions" about what is needed to secure such ships when they are on the open seas.
"It's not easy to take over a ship" as massive as an oil tanker, particularly VLCC's that can transport about 2 million barrels of crude, he said, adding that such vessels typically have an armed security contingent on board.
Pirates have gone after oil tankers before.
In October, a Spanish military patrol plane thwarted pirates trying to hijack an oil tanker by buzzing them three times and dropping smoke canisters.
On April 21, pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at a Japanese oil tanker, leaving a hole that allowed several hundred gallons of fuel to leak out, raising fears for the environment.
In September, three pirates in a speed boat fired machine guns at an Iranian crude oil carrier, though the ship escaped after a 30-minute chase.
Warships from the more than a dozen nations as well as NATO forces have focused their anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden, increasing their military presence in recent months.
But Saturday's hijacking occurred much farther south, highlighting weaknesses in the international response to the problem.
Graeme Gibbon Brooks, the managing director of British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd, said the increased international presence trying to prevent attacks is simply not enough.
"The coalition has suppressed a number of attacks ... but there will never be enough warships. The whole area is 2.5 million square miles ... the coalition have to act preemptively and be one step ahead of the pirates. The difficulty here is that the ship was beyond the area where the coalition were currently acting."
He did not know whether the Saudi ship had weapons or a security team onboard, but said their location — 200 kilometers off the coast — may have given the crew a false sense of security.
Brooks said the tanker likely had been targeted by a group of pirates distinct from the attackers in Somalia's Puntland region in the north, a notorious piracy hotspot.
The pirates in southern Somalia have not carried out any attacks this year, he said, probably because warships escorting food shipments from Mombasa to Mogadishu had been a deterrent.
"But now they see Puntland pirates appear to be operating impervious to the coalition. Perhaps they've drawn the same conclusion, that they can continue to carry out attacks," he said.
FOX News' Greg Palkot and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In one of their boldest hijacks yet, Somali pirates have seized a massive, Saudi-owned oil supertanker loaded with crude oil and carrying 25 crew members off the Kenyan coast, the U.S. Navy said Monday.
The hijacking was the latest in a surge in attacks this year by ransom-hungry Somali pirates and highlighted the vulnerability of even very large ships moving through the area. Attacks off the Somali coast have increased more than 75 percent this year.
After the brazen hijacking, the pirates took the ship to a Somali port that has become a haven for bandits and the ships they have seized, a Navy spokesman told the Associated Press.
The tanker, owned by Saudi oil company Aramco and operated by Vela International, is 1,080 feet, about the length of an aircraft carrier, making it one of the largest ships to sail the seas. It can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.
Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of Saturday's hijacking, but he did know how much. He also had no details about where the ship was sailing from and where it was headed.
"The Sirius Star ... was seized by a group of armed men approximately 420 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia on Sunday," a Vela International spokesman said. "All 25 crew members on board are reported to be safe and the vessel is fully laden with crude oil. Vela Response Teams have been mobilized and are working to ensure the safe release of the crew members and the vessel."
While Saudi-owned television station Al Arabiya reported that the crew was released by the hijackers, both the U.S. Navy and Aramco said they had not received such information.
The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and its 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
In a news release sent out on Monday from the 5th Fleet's Middle East headquarters in Bahrain, the Navy said the large crude tanker Sirius Star was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, an area far south of the zone patrolled by international warships.
It was the farthest Somali pirates have traveled so far to hijack a ship, Christensen said.
By expanding their ability to attack so far out at sea, Somali pirates are "certainly a threat to many more vessels," Christensen said.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said there were at least two British nationals aboard the MV Sirius Star, but said he could offer no further details on the ship or what had happened to it.
The Sirius Star was built in South Korea's Daewoo shipping yards and commissioned in March. Classed as a Very Large Crude Carrier, the ship is 318,000 dead weight tons.
An operator with Aramco said there was no one available at the company to comment after business hours.
As pirates have become better armed and equipped, they have sailed farther out to sea in search of bigger targets, including oil tankers, among the 20,000 tankers, freighters and merchant vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden each year.
Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets launchers and various types of grenades.
Raja Kiwan, a Dubai-based analyst with PFC Energy, said the hijacking raises "some serious questions" about what is needed to secure such ships when they are on the open seas.
"It's not easy to take over a ship" as massive as an oil tanker, particularly VLCC's that can transport about 2 million barrels of crude, he said, adding that such vessels typically have an armed security contingent on board.
Pirates have gone after oil tankers before.
In October, a Spanish military patrol plane thwarted pirates trying to hijack an oil tanker by buzzing them three times and dropping smoke canisters.
On April 21, pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at a Japanese oil tanker, leaving a hole that allowed several hundred gallons of fuel to leak out, raising fears for the environment.
In September, three pirates in a speed boat fired machine guns at an Iranian crude oil carrier, though the ship escaped after a 30-minute chase.
Warships from the more than a dozen nations as well as NATO forces have focused their anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden, increasing their military presence in recent months.
But Saturday's hijacking occurred much farther south, highlighting weaknesses in the international response to the problem.
Graeme Gibbon Brooks, the managing director of British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd, said the increased international presence trying to prevent attacks is simply not enough.
"The coalition has suppressed a number of attacks ... but there will never be enough warships. The whole area is 2.5 million square miles ... the coalition have to act preemptively and be one step ahead of the pirates. The difficulty here is that the ship was beyond the area where the coalition were currently acting."
He did not know whether the Saudi ship had weapons or a security team onboard, but said their location — 200 kilometers off the coast — may have given the crew a false sense of security.
Brooks said the tanker likely had been targeted by a group of pirates distinct from the attackers in Somalia's Puntland region in the north, a notorious piracy hotspot.
The pirates in southern Somalia have not carried out any attacks this year, he said, probably because warships escorting food shipments from Mombasa to Mogadishu had been a deterrent.
"But now they see Puntland pirates appear to be operating impervious to the coalition. Perhaps they've drawn the same conclusion, that they can continue to carry out attacks," he said.
FOX News' Greg Palkot and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
- troll -
[ Bericht 92% gewijzigd door sp3c op 17-11-2008 19:43:26 ]
[ Bericht 92% gewijzigd door sp3c op 17-11-2008 19:43:26 ]
De pessimist ziet het duister in de tunnel
De optimist ziet het licht aan het eind van de tunnel
De realist ziet de trein komen
De machinist ziet drie idioten in het spoor staan....
De optimist ziet het licht aan het eind van de tunnel
De realist ziet de trein komen
De machinist ziet drie idioten in het spoor staan....
't is ook echt ongelofelijk. Wereldwijd honderden marineschepen die hun tijd verdoen met oefeningen en patrouilles, maar dit kleine stukje zee isdan niet eens te bewaken 
Tijd om die Somaliers eens flink af te knallen? Het is nu wel genoeg geweest lijkt mij.
Cool story, Hansel.
Dit snap ik ook niet echtquote:Op maandag 17 november 2008 17:18 schreef dubidub het volgende:
't is ook echt ongelofelijk. Wereldwijd honderden marineschepen die hun tijd verdoen met oefeningen en patrouilles, maar dit kleine stukje zee isdan niet eens te bewaken
When I get sad, I stop being sad and just be awesome instead.
Ik snap er ook niets van. Een dag bomben, nuken en schieten en er is geen piraat meer over volgens mij.quote:Op maandag 17 november 2008 17:18 schreef dubidub het volgende:
't is ook echt ongelofelijk. Wereldwijd honderden marineschepen die hun tijd verdoen met oefeningen en patrouilles, maar dit kleine stukje zee isdan niet eens te bewaken
Dit heb ik net geschreven op de frontpage.
Ik heb overigens wel gemerkt dat de Somalische piraten erg onderschat worden, in tegenstelling tot de vele marineschepen in de buurt die wel inzien hoe gevaarlijk en knettergek deze gasten zijn. Somalie is een gedesintegreerd land, waarbij alles maar dan ook echt alles uit elkaar viel in 1991. De piraten die je hier ziet bestaan uit ex-mariniers, vissersbazen en rijke zakenlui. De clan is zoals altijd een zeer belangrijk element in het geheel, en dus ook bij deze misdaadorganisatie.
Ooit gehoord over de vele Afrikaanse lijken die op de Jemenitische kust aanspoelen? De ghetto wijken in Nairobi die worden overspoeld met wapens uit deze regio? De piraterij is een deel van een groter context.
Dat de marineschepen daar maar zitten te niksen vind ik ook vreemd, maar ik sluit niet uit dat het hen allang niet meer gaat om de Somalische piraten. Daar is volgens mij iets gaande dat helemaal niets, maar dan ook werkelijk niets met Somalie te maken heeft. Er is een strijd gaande tussen de verschillende landen voor een langdurige machtspositie in die wateren dat de drukste handelsroutes op aarde bevat.
Het lijkt misschien overdreven, maar zo denk ik er over. Het gaat hen allang niet meer om de piraten, die piraten hebben hen wellicht zelfs een dienst bewezen.
quote:Ik kom zelf uit die regio (Puntland) waar deze beruchte piraten vandaan komen en ze worden er gezien als helden. De kust daar heeft te kampen gehad met buitenlanders die illegaal in onze wateren visten en die ook nog op gegeven moment geweld gebruikten tegen de lokale visserij.
In eerste instantie was het dus de bedoeling om deze buitenlanders een lesje te leren, wat ook gelukt is, de halve wereld durft niet eens meer in de buurt te komen, maar die ventjes zijn inmiddels te ver doorgeslagen. Ze zijn zwaarbewapend, inmiddels steenrijk en hebben millennia aan kennis van de zee geërfd van hun voorvaderen. Ze zien dit simpelweg als hun roeping, en laten we nou wel wezen: het is ook een beetje een jongensdroom.
Ik ga er zelf heen aankomende zomer en ben benieuwd naar wat ik daar allemaal zal aantreffen.
Ik heb overigens wel gemerkt dat de Somalische piraten erg onderschat worden, in tegenstelling tot de vele marineschepen in de buurt die wel inzien hoe gevaarlijk en knettergek deze gasten zijn. Somalie is een gedesintegreerd land, waarbij alles maar dan ook echt alles uit elkaar viel in 1991. De piraten die je hier ziet bestaan uit ex-mariniers, vissersbazen en rijke zakenlui. De clan is zoals altijd een zeer belangrijk element in het geheel, en dus ook bij deze misdaadorganisatie.
Ooit gehoord over de vele Afrikaanse lijken die op de Jemenitische kust aanspoelen? De ghetto wijken in Nairobi die worden overspoeld met wapens uit deze regio? De piraterij is een deel van een groter context.
Dat de marineschepen daar maar zitten te niksen vind ik ook vreemd, maar ik sluit niet uit dat het hen allang niet meer gaat om de Somalische piraten. Daar is volgens mij iets gaande dat helemaal niets, maar dan ook werkelijk niets met Somalie te maken heeft. Er is een strijd gaande tussen de verschillende landen voor een langdurige machtspositie in die wateren dat de drukste handelsroutes op aarde bevat.
Het lijkt misschien overdreven, maar zo denk ik er over. Het gaat hen allang niet meer om de piraten, die piraten hebben hen wellicht zelfs een dienst bewezen.
Er zijn meerdere topics over dit onderwerp en alles wat hiermee verband houdt. Dit topic gaat daarom op slot. Discussie kan centraal verder in dit topic: Somalische piraten kapen schepen
