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| Africa Horn |
| Somali pirates warn against 'aggression' |
| 2008-11-26 |
| Somali pirates on Tuesday were engaged in talks over ransoms for several vessels, including a Saudi oil tanker, an Ukrainian freighter carrying arms and their latest catch, a Yemeni cargo ship. As the world mulled a response to the problem that has sowed panic in the shipping industry and threatens an ailing global economy, increasingly brazen pirates continued to dodge navy ships to prey on foreign vessels. Officials from Yemen, which shares the Gulf of Aden's shores with Somalia, said Tuesday that a Yemeni cargo ship carrying building materials was seized last week. "The pirates are demanding a ransom of $2 million," said one official. Somali pirates have carried out around 100 attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean since the start of this year. They still hold 17 ships and more than 250 crew. The pirates - a rag-tag army of an estimated 1,500 clan militiamen and former coast guards divided into four or five groups - have been in the world's spotlight since hijacking a 330-meter Saudi supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil on November 15. Mohammad Said, the leader of the group holding the Sirius Star who announced to AFP last week that he was demanding $25 million to free the ship, said on Tuesday that talks were ongoing. "The negotiations with the owners of the tanker continue. I hope they understand the situation," the pirate said. "We're treating the people on the ship very courteously and this will not change unless the other side behaves aggressively," he added. The ship is currently a few kilometers at sea, off the shores of the pirate lair of Harardhere, north of Mogadishu. Islamist fighters controlling much of southern and central Somalia have vowed to clamp down on piracy as they did while in government in 2006, but the pirates have beefed up their military set-up around Harardhere and warned that any attack would have "disastrous" consequences. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 GW, as his last hurrah, should roll in 4 to 6 Herc's each with a MOAB on board and drop them on that Somali coastal town. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2008-11-26 18:34 |
| #1 "Somali pirates warn against aggression." That's a hoot. |
| Posted by: Lonzo Thomolet8930 2008-11-26 18:24 |