/ 14 April 2009

Somali pirates hijack freighter

Somali pirates have hijacked another vessel in the Horn of Africa, a freighter seized overnight in the Gulf of Aden, maritime security contractors said on Tuesday.

The MV Irene EM is the latest victim of pirates who appear undeterred by United States and French navy operations to free hostages that
have killed seven bandits in the past week.

The contractors spoke on condition of anonymity because it is a sensitive security issue. They did not know the ship’s owner or where it is licensed.

The Irene is at least the third vessel hijacked in a week. The nighttime attack indicates increased technology acquired by pirates who win multimillion-dollar ransoms.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama vowed ”to halt the rise of piracy”, while shipmates of a rescued American freighter captain called for tough action against Somali bandits who are preying on
one of the world’s busiest sea routes.

Obama appeared to move up the piracy issue on his agenda, saying the United States would work with nations elsewhere in the world.

”I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region and to achieve that goal, we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks,” Obama said at a Washington news conference.

The nighttime rescue operation of Richard Phillips won praise abroad, but it was uncertain how far Obama wanted to go to engage the pirates.

The US was considering options including adding Navy gunships along the Somali coastline and launching a campaign to disable pirate ”mother ships,” according to military officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.

Some military strategists believe it may ultimately be necessary to attack the pirates’ bases on land in Somalia. But few international allies have the appetite for another land operation in Somalia, where a US military foray in the early 1990s ended in humiliation. And the cost in civilian casualties would likely be extremely high, some warn.

”That would be nuts,” said Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and State Department counterterrorism specialist. ”These people are not organised into any military force, they are intermingled with women
and children. You’re talking about wiping out villages.”

The chief mate aboard the US-flagged Maersk Alabama, of which Phillips was the captain, was among those urging strong US action.

”It’s time for us to step in and put an end to this crisis,” Shane Murphy said. ”It’s a crisis. Wake up.”

On Tuesday morning the crew left the cargo ship in the Kenyan resort city of Mombasa and boarded buses and checked into a hotel there. It was not immediately clear how long the crew was planning
to stay. Some crew have said they would return home soon, probably by air.

The crew walked into the hotel with luggage, but hotel security guards stopped journalists from entering.

New details emerged on Monday about the stand-off.

Fearing the pirates’ lifeboat was approaching the Somali shore, where they could escape, the Bainbridge rammed it back out toward sea, said a spokesperson for Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet. That happened before the Bainbridge put a tow
line on the lifeboat to help it navigate the choppy sea.

The four pirates that attacked the Alabama were between 17 and 19 years old, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.

”Untrained teenagers with heavy weapons,” Gates told a group of students and faculty at the Marine Corps War College. ”Everybody in the room knows the consequences of that.”

US officials were now considering whether to bring the fourth pirate, who surrendered shortly before the sniper shootings, to the United States or possibly turn him over to Kenya. If he is brought to the US, he’d most likely be put on trial in New York or Washington.

Both piracy and hostage-taking carry life prison sentences under US law.

The American ship had been carrying food aid bound for Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda when the ordeal began Wednesday hundreds of kilometres off Somalia’s eastern coast. As the pirates clambered aboard and shot in the air, Phillips told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men.

Phillips was then taken hostage in an enclosed lifeboat that was soon shadowed by three US warships and a helicopter. Navy Seal snipers parachuted from their aircraft into the sea, and were
picked up by the USS Bainbridge, a senior US official said.

US Defence officials said snipers got the go-ahead to fire after one pirate held an AK-47 close to Phillips’ back. The military officials asked not to be named because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the case.

Snipers killed three pirates with single shots shortly after sailors on the Bainbridge saw the hostage-takers ”with their heads and shoulders exposed”, Gortney said.

Pirates hold about 230 foreign sailors in more than a dozen ships anchored off lawless Somalia.

Vilma de Guzman worried about her husband, one of 23 Filipino sailors held hostage since November 10 on the chemical tanker MT Stolt Strength.

”The pirates might vent their anger on them,” she said. ”Those released are lucky, but what about those who remain captive?” – Sapa-AP