Indian Navy Captures 23 Pirates In Gulf of Aden

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[media]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_on_re_af/piracy[/media]

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI — The Indian navy captured 23 pirates who threatened a merchant vessel in the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden and a German naval helicopter thwarted another attack Saturday on a freighter being chased by speedboats off Yemen.

The successes came days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to ask the United Nations to authorize "all necessary measures" against increasingly bold Somalian pirates operating in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

An Indian navy ship, the INS Mysore, was escorting merchant ships in waters off Somalia's coast Saturday when it received a distress call from seamen on board the MV Gibe, who said they were being fired on by two boats that were approaching fast.

The Mysore and its helicopter sped to the scene, and the pirate boats attempted to escape when they saw them, according to a statement from the Indian government.

Indian marine commandoes boarded the pirate boats and seized "a substantial cache of arms and equipment," including seven AK-47 assault rifles, three machine guns, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and other weapons, the statement said. They also found a GPS receiver and other equipment.

The pirates were from Somalia and Yemen, two countries on the coast of the Gulf of Aden. The Gibe was flying an Ethiopian flag but little else was known about it, the Indian statement said.

Last month, India's navy drew criticism after sinking a Thai fishing trawler that had been commandeered hours earlier by pirates. At least one Thai crew member was killed in the attack, which the Indian navy had originally announced by saying it had sunk a pirate "mother ship." The Indian navy defended its actions, saying it had fired in self-defense.

Somali pirates have become increasingly brazen and recently seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million of crude oil. Many of the vessels are taken to pirate-controlled regions in Somalia, where they are held for ransom.

It was not immediately clear what would happen to the pirates captured by the Indians, or where they would be taken. The statement said only that the prisoners and their weapons would be "handed over to appropriate authorities ashore."

Most foreign navies patrolling the Somali coast have been reluctant to detain suspects because of uncertainties over where they would face trial, since Somalia has no effective central government or legal system.

Also on Saturday, a German military spokesman said a navy frigate had chased away pirates in speedboats pursuing an Ethiopian freighter off the coast of Yemen.

The German frigate responded to a distress call from the freighter, and a helicopter took off from the deck to investigate. The pirates turned away from the freighter as the helicopter flew overhead, said the spokesman, who declined to give his name in line with military policy.

An estimated 1,500 pirates are based in Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region, raking in millions of dollars.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will present a draft Security Council resolution next week asking the United Nations to authorize "all necessary measures" against piracy from Somalia.

However, the commander of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet expressed doubt Friday about the wisdom of launching attacks against Somali pirates on land, as the draft proposes.

U.S. Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters that it is difficult to identify pirates, and the potential for killing innocent civilians "cannot be overestimated."

The threat of pirates recently prompted a German cruise ship to evacuate some 420 passengers and crew after the company decided not to risk their safety as the ship passed through the Gulf of Aden.

The passengers and crew have rejoined the M/S Columbus — which is on a six-month round-the-world trip — in Oman's port of Salalah after three days in Dubai, Hamburg-based cruise operator Hapag-Lloyd said Saturday.

The ship and a limited crew made it through the gulf without incident, a company spokeswoman said.

[Seascamp]

First place, the EU and victim countries should be the ones grappling with the inert UN, not Dr. Rice. Wassamatter them, got no stones, got no brave boyos? I’m totally not good with the idea of US troops or Marines sent to go lock horns with the Somali pirates on land. Clinton is just around the corner and we have already seen how that works, several times over. No need for a Clinton , take two, in Somalia or Yemen. She may get a squirt setting up troops and Sailors for the hog slaughter pen, but no point in a repeat so she can get all quivery again.


Scamp

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[media]http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081213/ts_nm/us_usa_somalia_gates[/media]

MANAMA (Reuters) – The United States lacks the intelligence needed to pursue the fight against pirates on Somali soil, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday.

His comments came days after the U.S. delegation at the United Nations circulated a draft resolution that would give countries the right to pursue pirates on land as well as at sea.

Analysts say that pursuing pirates on land is crucial to any military response to attacks that have targeted dozens of ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in recent months.

"With the level of information we have at the moment, we're not in a position to do that kind of land-based operation," Gates told a regional security conference in Bahrain. "Our first need is intelligence, (to know) who is behind it."

Referring to media reports that "two to three clans or extended families" were behind the pirate attacks on ships off the Somali coast, Gates said: "If we can identify who those clans are then we can operate on land under the auspices of the United Nations and seek out ways to minimize collateral damage."

Scores of attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in recent months have pushed up insurance costs, earned Somali pirates tens of millions of dollars in ransom and prompted foreign navies to rush to protect merchant shipping.

Some 20 ships are still being held by sea gangs, among them a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.

On Friday, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, who commands the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and oversees a coalition of navies fighting piracy off Somalia, also expressed concern about the difficulty in identifying the pirates.

He said firms should use armed security guards much more to protect their vessels.

Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, an expert for maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said adding land operations to those at sea is crucial to an effective military response to pirate attacks.

"The single most difficult problem the forces are facing is that they don't ... have the jurisdiction to chase them into their natural habitat on land and to deal with them there," Roy-Chaudhury told Reuters.

He said the international military response to piracy off the Somali coast lacked coordination.

"Military efforts to combat piracy continue to be fairly ad hoc, and not in terms of any strategic thinking or in terms of any attempted institutionalization," he said.

The European Union this week decided as an initial step to send three warships to the region, as well as two maritime surveillance aircraft from France and Spain.

(Reporting by Frederik Richter; Editing by Sami Aboudi)