Somali pirates menace to destroy Faina; Kidnapping ends
With U.S. warships lurking nearby, the pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia threatened to destroy the vessel unless a ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said.
Besides the U.S. ships, a Russian frigate was heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid on the ship. Pirates have seized more than two dozen ships this year off the Horn of Africa, but the hijacking of the Faina has drawn the most international concern because of its dangerous cargo.
The vessel is carrying 33 tanks and other heavy weapons.
Also on Friday, armed pirates in speedboats hijacked a Greek chemical tanker with 20 crew members in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, a piracy watchdog official said.
After that, the Army from the autonomous region of Puntland (Somalia) attacked the ship. Two pirates and a soldier died in the attack that recovered the ship. What shocks me is that there are practically no news about this. The news report adds:
Although United Nations passed a resolution in which any country was allowed to fight Somali pirates, no Government has decided to carry on an action to end their attacks.
So someone was actually hoping a UN resolution would move countries to act? How shocking!!
It also reports:
Faina was carrying 33 Russian tanks T-72, anti-air weapons, grenades and munition, whose destination was the region of the Sudanese south.
First thing is that it doesn’t say what weapons that munition was for and the second thing is that we don’t know yet exactly what the destination was, as there have been contradicting reports.
Related posts:
About Somali Islamists:
Somalia: Islamists destroy derelict church.
About the Ukrainian ship kidnapped in Somalia:
- Hijacker Somali pirates: “We’ll fight to the death before surrendering us to US, Russia”.
- Somali Islamists’ statements (over the kidnapped Ukrainian ship and, well…, more menaces).
- Piracy is miraculous…sometimes.
- The mistery over the Ukrainian ship captured in Somalia continues.
- Somali pirates demand $20 million ransom.
- What was doing an Iranian-state cargo ship on Somali waters?
[...] contrary to what I thought the Faina’s kidnapping had not ended. The pirates have freed other kidnapped ships (one from Thailand and another one from South Korea) [...]
No Consensus on How to Solve Somali Pirate Problem « Blogging for a free world
October 23, 2008 at 9:58 pm