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Possible Pirate Attack in the Red Sea
From EagleSpeak weblog site.I have received an early report of an RPG and machine gun attack on a merchant ship in the Red Sea, north of the Bab El Mandeb chokepoint, after the ship dropped its escort vessels. The attack reportedly took place about 8-9 hours ago. As far as I know, this is the first reported attack by possible pirates in this area. However, with monsoon weather possibly affecting the Gulf of Aden and waters off the east coast of Somalia, this might be another pirate adaptation. UPDATE: Report from Nick of Gulf of Aden Group Transits (GOAGT): Just a heads up that ...[ship] was attacked this morning with RPG & automatic fire -- the Stolt Strength... [under] escort from Oman Border to the start of the supposed safe area of red sea at Bab El Mandeb -- however this attack happened 50 miles North, after the SS had been released from the Navy escort. Vessel has sustained damage to bridge and accommodation block but vessel conducted evasive manouevres and ... contacted Gulf of Aden Group Transits ...[contacted] Yemen Navy resulted in immediate deployment of multiple military vessels and helicopters searching for the Skiff with the 7 pirates onboard. Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-05-31 |
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