I45owl Wrote:The "Free Guantanamo" crowd strikes again: Pirates Exploit Confusion About International Law.
Thats why I think when Somali Pirate villages start blowing up at 3: 00 A.M. this stuff will end.
However, the Indian Navy apparently has the balls to take the Pirates on...
Indian Navy Says It Sank Pirate Ship
NEW DELHI — As negotiations started for the release of a Saudi-owned supertanker seized by pirates off Somalia, the Indian Navy said on Wednesday that one of its warships fought a battle at sea with would-be hijackers in the Gulf of Aden, sinking one suspect vessel and forcing the pirates to abandon a second as they fled.
The drama on the night-time waters of the Indian Ocean late Tuesday underscored the growing international concern at the audacity with which armed pirates, mostly based in Somalia, range across vast areas of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, attacking at will.
In a statement on Wednesday, Cmdr. Nirad Kumar Sinha, a spokesman for the Indian Navy, said an Indian warship, the INS Tabar, encountered a flotilla of three pirate vessels some 320 miles south west of the Omani coast in the Gulf of Aden in a separate incident on Tuesday evening.
One ship was apparently a “mother ship” used by pirates to extend their range, with two speedboats in tow. The suspect vessel matched the description of a pirate vessel issued by international anti-piracy authorities, Commander Sinha said.
He said the ‘“whole operation lasted four to five hours” and was “the first such incident in which the Indian Navy sank the pirates’ mother ship.”
When the Indian vessel tried to halt the ship, he said, “the vessel’s threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship” if it came closer.
“Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers,” Commander Sinha said. “The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar. On being fired upon, INS Tabar retaliated in self-defense and opened fire on the mother vessel.”
“As a result of the firing by INS Tabar, fire broke out on the vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel. Almost simultaneously, two speedboats were observed breaking off to escape. The ship chased the first boat which was later found abandoned. The other boat made good its escape into darkness,” he said. There was no immediate word on casualties among the pirates.
The Indian account suggested that pirates had attacked the Tabar, deployed to repulse pirates — equaling the brazenness of the hijacking on Sunday of the Sirius Star.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/world/...ss&emc=rss
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