|
Pirates seize Ukrainian ship off Somalia coast
NAIROBI (AFP) Pirates on Thursday seized a Ukrainian cargo ship off the coast of Somalia while it was en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, a maritime official told AFP.The hijackers commandeered the Belize-flagged Faina to a yet unknown location, said Andrew Mwngura who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme. "It was sailing from the Baltics and was expected in Mombasa on September 27," he added. "As usual, the pirates were armed on a speedboat when they seized the ship, but we do not know where they have taken it." Somali pirates often take ships to Eyl, a pirate den in the country's northern breakaway region of Puntland. On Monday, the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre chief Noel Choong said the pirates had changed tactics by attacking further out to sea and on two fronts to evade international security. He said the attackers now operate simultaneously in the Gulf of Aden and on the eastern coast of Somalia and extending their range by operating from larger vessels. Some pirates have justified their actions by claiming that, in the absence of a functional central authority in Somalia, they were battling illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping by foreign countries. Ahhhh... they're "environmentalist" pirates. Posted by: tu3031 2008-09-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=251024 |