[/SIZE]Unidentified military fighter jets launched an airstrike earlier this week in northern Somalia in a suspected attack on a pirate base, AFP has reported citing a coastguard official and several witnesses.
AFP says the aircraft struck near the north-eastern coastal village of Gumah, which lies some 220 kilometres (140 miles) east of Bossaso, the main port of Somalia’s breakaway Puntland state. Two civilian’s were killed in the attacks.
As gCaptain reported last month, the European Union confirmed its intention to extend its EU Naval Force’s (EUNAVFOR) counter-piracy mission, Operation ATALANTA, to “include Somalia’s coastal territory and internal waters”, indicating the pursuit of pirates by EUNAVFOR for the first time on land, or at least on the beach.
But despite those intentions, a spokesman for Atalanta told AFP that it was “not involved whatsoever” and did not give any comment on who may be behind the strikes.
The number of other nations conducting anti-piracy military operations around the Horn of Africa is nearly too lengthy to mention but include Russia, China, the U.S. and even Iran.
More please! Start strafing them at sea as well…effing tinpot thugs! Once they KNOW they will DIE then piracy off Somalia goes POOF!
[QUOTE=c.captain;67635]More please! Start strafing them at sea as well…effing tinpot thugs! Once they KNOW they will DIE then piracy off Somalia goes POOF![/QUOTE]
The nazis tried that with ukrainian peasants and homosexuals. Did that stop them from being partisans or homosexual?
[QUOTE=BMCSRetired;67652]The nazis tried that with ukrainian peasants and homosexuals. Did that stop them from being partisans or homosexual?[/QUOTE]
Are you seriously comparing a Fascist extermination of a people because of their beliefs to armed thugs stealing and kidnapping for profit? WOW.
If we blew every pirate out of the water for 2 weeks straight, it would stop instantly. Those young poor kids recruited are doing it for cash alone. They do not want to die. Only problem is every hostage still held will perish. That is currently 13 vessels and 200 seamen.
What is even more stupid than not killing them is not prosecuting them. So far, roughly 800 have been captured and prosecuted for piracy off Somalia. More than 4,000 have been captured and released. It is likely that many of these have been captured and released more than once.
According to the British Foreign Affairs Select Committee, nine out of ten piracy suspects detained by the Royal Navy and other maritime forces in the Gulf of Aden or Indian Ocean are released without trial.
Only problem is every hostage still held will perish. That is currently 13 vessels and 200 seamen.
That’s why we have special forces…storm every ship being held simultaneously, kill every pirate aboard and liberate every seaman. They then get their individual ships underway and into the safety of covering forces. Then kill every pirate within 200miles of the coast. Once it is known that there is a very great probability of death this farce will END! PERIOD!
[QUOTE=Knots;67658]According to the British Foreign Affairs Select Committee, nine out of ten piracy suspects detained by the Royal Navy and other maritime forces in the Gulf of Aden or Indian Ocean are released without trial.[/QUOTE]
So why are they being released instead of prosecuted? Why don’t we rail against gthe governments that are not doing anything? Of course! Let’s just ride around the ocean and blow up every small vessel or coastal freighter that “might” be a mothership. Even better, since we are obviously civilized and smarter, killing them instead of prosecuting them is the way to go.
Settle down Beavis! If all you eat is sand and your only other choices are starving to death, being blown up or having a slight chance at a life by ripping people off, what r u gonna do? Sorry, this solution didn’t work in Iraq or Afghanistan and its not going to work in Somalia. It makes you feel like you have some sort of control over situations you think you understand. Sound familiar?
It took us 10 years to find Bin-Laden. How long do you think it is going to find 200 people and execute that mission? Oh I forget, you guys did years in the military and experts at issues like this.
And yes, I did compare it to extermination because I knew somebody would take the bait. Congratulations!
Be happy you live in place where you don’t have to make that decision. Exit, stage left…
I side with BMC to some extent. The problem of piracy is easy to eradicate from a keyboard ashore. At sea it’s another story.
For one political constraints are real. Think about the war in Afghanistan. Why don’t the troops just shoot the bad guys and end the war? Is it a problem of excess political correctness on the part of the troops? I doubt it.
What about that recent closing down of supply routes though Pakistan after an incident there involving our troops? That supply closure made logistics much more difficult. Rules of engagement are based upon real, practical on the ground facts and are intended to insure that the wars goals are achieved.
Consider the possibility that machine gunning 200 fishing boats per one pirate kill may be something that politicians don’t feel can be justified. Some may think that avoiding innocent deaths is political correctness gone mad but it may be based upon very real practical considerations.
Knowledgeable people believe that this problem can only be solved ashore, not at sea.
Actually I was turned around on the kill zone. I meant to make it “outside” of say 100 miles. Make it clear that any small vessel in that exclusion zone is subject to being fired on with intent to sink and destroy. Legitimate fishermen have no business being so far offshore or at least will not venture into those waters. Merchant ships of course, stay in the exclusion zone alone so any small boat encountered is automatically a threat.
Why on earth do we have helicopter assault carriers if we don’t use them. Protecting free passage of merchant ships on the high seas is one of the first duties of any naval force. Eff political correctness. That’s what allowed this GD situation to develop in the first place.
The reason the captain is not in jail is because he is not in the chain of command with military security. Otherwise he’d be there too. Unfortunately at sea mariners have to deal with the real world.
[QUOTE=c.captain;67635]More please! Start strafing them at sea as well…effing tinpot thugs! Once they KNOW they will DIE then piracy off Somalia goes POOF![/QUOTE]
OOH RAH! Just like we deal with vermin, rats, at home. Bait them, identify them, eradicate them!
I’d like to talk about what a crew can do when approached by a potential pirate boat. In the 80’s the piracy hot spot was the Straits of Malacca. One of the favorite methods of pirates then was to run a zodiac up to the stern of a ship that was riding low in the water. They would go to the bridge and demand the Master turn over any $$ on board and then they’d leave. The countermeasure at the time was to light up the stern and have at least two charged fire hoses aimed at the preferred point of entry.
Any thoughts ? I’d especially like to hear from those who regularly transit the Red Sea.
[QUOTE=Puget-islander;68220]I’d like to talk about what a crew can do when approached by a potential pirate boat. In the 80’s the piracy hot spot was the Straits of Malacca. One of the favorite methods of pirates then was to run a zodiac up to the stern of a ship that was riding low in the water. They would go to the bridge and demand the Master turn over any $$ on board and then they’d leave. The countermeasure at the time was to light up the stern and have at least two charged fire hoses aimed at the preferred point of entry.
Any thoughts ? I’d especially like to hear from those who regularly transit the Red Sea.[/QUOTE]
IAW instructions I’m going to move to Maritime Topics -Maritime Security and rename thread: Shipboard Anti-Piracy Procedures
[QUOTE=Puget-islander;68220]I’d like to talk about what a crew can do when approached by a potential pirate boat. In the 80’s the piracy hot spot was the Straits of Malacca. One of the favorite methods of pirates then was to run a zodiac up to the stern of a ship that was riding low in the water. They would go to the bridge and demand the Master turn over any $$ on board and then they’d leave. The countermeasure at the time was to light up the stern and have at least two charged fire hoses aimed at the preferred point of entry.
Any thoughts ? I’d especially like to hear from those who regularly transit the Red Sea.[/QUOTE]
I still see ships doing that in the straits
