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| Africa Horn |
| Spanish P3 heads for Somali waters |
| 2008-09-23 |
| (SomaliNet) The Ministry of Defence said a Spanish military aircraft which will patrol the waters off the coast of Somalia to protect ships from pirates left on Saturday from Moron air base in Seville. The ministry said in a news release that the P-3 Orion plane was accompanied by a Boeing 727 and a Hercules helicopter, carrying 90 personnel including crew. According to a plan, the patrol operation will run for an initial three months, which could be extended depending on decisions taken on the international stage. According to a Somali official, the move comes after French commandos on Tuesday freed two French tourists held for ransom on their yacht off the African country's coast. In April, crew members of a Spanish fishing boat were freed by pirates in the area after payment of a $1.2 million ransom. The Orion will collect information on the movements of pirates to relay to a European Union task force formed on Monday to work against piracy off the Horn of Africa. Gunmen from Somalia have hijacked more than 30 ships so far this year, making the strategic shipping lanes in the busy Gulf of Aden the most dangerous in the world. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #11 A P-3 would be a nice ride for pirate hunting. You've got your surface search radar and with an anti-shipping missile loadout, it would be a great way to spend a lazy afternoon looking for the mothership. Argh, indeed! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-09-23 15:23 |
| #10 I'm beginning to think the best we can do is have a carrier strike group work over one of the "Somali" ports for a couple of days. These are people that only respect the strongest horse. The US has failed miserably at showing how nasty it can be, and these continued snipes around the periphery are the result. Piracy is working like a charm for these idiots, and they're getting rich from it. The only thing that will stop it is to make it far too expensive to even try. The only way the West can do that is to take offensive action against their bases. Bomb one city back to the stone age, with maybe 5% of the population surviving, and there won't be a pirate in all of Somalia the next morning. Too many people think they'll be next. Anarchy is ugly. Whenever it raises its ugly head, it needs to find an axe imbedded in it. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-09-23 14:58 |
| #9 Usually flogged wit a 9-iron. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-09-23 14:50 |
| #8 Wasn't yesterday "Talk Like A Pirate Day"? ARRRGH! |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2008-09-23 14:24 |
| #7 I still say sinking every vessel in a couple of Somali ports would have a salutary effect. |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-09-23 13:58 |
| #6 What this whole pirate thing cries out for is a history lesson. I believe in WWII they were called Q-boats. Yeh... that's been flogged here for years, and continues to get flogged every time one of these articles comes up. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-09-23 13:45 |
| #5 Update: the unarmed P3 has developed mechanical problems and is back to Spain. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-09-23 11:42 |
| #4 You really want something in the air as well to figure out which is the pirate mother boat so you can go after that one too. Of course you'd want to keep quiet about your operations, so the rest of us might not notice for a while. |
| Posted by: James 2008-09-23 11:23 |
| #3 What this whole pirate thing cries out for is a history lesson. I believe in WWII they were called Q-boats. Ships that were disquised as mild mannered merchant vessels yet when the German U-boats would pop up to shell them, portals would swing open and MANY artillery pieces would fire salvos at the offending vessel. Let's face it, a few "bee-hive" rounds not to mention HE vs whatever these scaliwags brought to the party would provide Davy Jones a few new souls...... |
| Posted by: Everyday a Wildcat(KSU) 2008-09-23 09:29 |
| #2 Is Moron their BEST base? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-09-23 09:28 |
| #1 According to Zapatero doctrine it is an unarmed P3. Pirates are shaking in their boots. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-09-23 06:32 |