MOGADISHU — Pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in crude anchored the ship within sight of impoverished Somali fishing villages Tuesday, while other bandits took control of an Iranian cargo ship — the seventh vessel hijacked in 12 days.
Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that it will join the international fight against piracy, and Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the hijacked Saudi oil supertanker by force if necessary.
But with naval forces unwilling to intervene, shipowners in past piracy cases have ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargos and crew.
The latest ship seized was a bulk cargo carrier flying a Hong Kong flag and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the status of the crew and cargo was not known.
The International Maritime Bureau on Sunday reported five hijackings since Nov. 7, before the hijackings of the Saudi and Iranian ships were announced.
The U.S. and other naval forces decided against intervention in the seizure of the supertanker. NATO said it would not divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the Saudi supertanker, the MV Sirius Star. The tanker was seized over the weekend about 450 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast.
Never before have Somali pirates seized such a giant ship so far out to sea — and never a vessel so large. The captors of the Sirius Star anchored the ship, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members, close to a main pirate den on the Somali coast, Harardhere.
"As usual, I woke up at 3 a.m. and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles off the shore," said Abdinur Haji, a fisherman in Harardhere.
"I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship."
He said two small boats floated out to the ship and 18 men — presumably other pirates — climbed aboard with a rope ladder. Spectators watched as a small boat carried food and qat, a narcotic leaf popular in Somalia, to the supertanker.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called the hijacking "an outrageous act" and said "piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together."
Speaking during a visit to Athens on Tuesday, he said Saudi Arabia would join an international initiative against piracy in the Red Sea area, where more than 80 pirate attacks have taken place this year.
He did not elaborate on what steps the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers. Saudi Arabia's French-equipped navy has 18,000-20,000 personnel, but has never taken part in any high-seas fighting.
Abdullkadir Musa, the deputy sea port minister in northern Somalia's breakaway Puntland region, said if the ship tries to anchor anywhere near Eyl — where the U.S. earlier said it was heading — then his forces will try to rescue it.
Forces from Puntland have sometimes confronted pirates, though Somalia's weak central government, which is fighting Islamic insurgents, has been unable to mount a response to increasing piracy.
Puntland forces, their guns blazing, freed a Panama-flagged cargo ship from pirates on Oct. 14.
The Dubai-based owner of the Saudi tanker, Vela International Marine Ltd., said the oil tanker's 25 crew members "are believed to be safe." The statement made no mention of a ransom or contacts with the bandits.
The Sirius Star's cargo is worth about $100 million at current prices, but the pirates have no known way to unload it from the tanker.
In Vienna, Ehsan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at JBC Energy, said the seizure was not affecting oil prices, since traders were focused instead on "the overall economy."
The U.S. Navy is still surrounding a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weaponry that was seized by pirates Sept. 25 off the Somali coast.
___
Surk contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP writers Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia, and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium contributed to this report.
Oh nooooo! L. Bob Rife will soon take it over! He'll hitch it to a decommissioned aircraft carrier, and we will see the birth of The Raft!
Snowcrash is real!
where's the SAS when you need them? that'll teach those pirates a lesson.
I would think that Executive Outcomes has already been contracted to take back the Oil Tanker, even though, they technically don't exist anymore.
I would also be willing to bet that China has dispatched the Snow Wolves to the area since they are already trained in these type actions already.
What is very interesting though is the part of this story we are not hearing about since anyone in their right mind knows that the Saudi's nor the Iranians are not just going to let someone joy ride all over the world in one of their ships. And you can certainly bet that China in no way is going to put up with that especially if the ship has a Chinese flag (Hong Kong) on it.
This is serious business guys!
The damage that these pirates could inflict on our food supply with that oil could cause a world wide famine if it were to released. It has a chain reaction of biological change that would take years to restore.
What are you not finding serious?
Do you know who Executive Outcomes is?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes
Or the Snow Wolves?
Eh. The Hong Kong flag is really just a flag of convenience. It's not a Chinese ship and my guess is that China could care less about this particular ship.
It's like operating a US business out of the Isle of Man.
I find it amazing that these so-called pirates could hijack such a large tanker! Wow. So do these tankers not have security people who would be on watch and notice a boatload of armed bandits approaching?
Even if they did, they couldn't help it. Pirates have modern weapons. RPGs. Machine guns. They don't carry sabers and flintlock pistols anymore.
And you don't want guns firing near an oil tanker.
You would think they would..lol I dont see the Saudi's taking any action about it though..they always play that Multi-Nation game asking for support. They have an Air Force and a Navy..The Saudi's sure dont jump when the oil prices are $5 a gallon.. Let them get their own tanker back! We are constantly helping every little @!$%# hole country over there and never our own...!! Our so called seasonal allies change with the wind depending on their needs...fin for themselves!
It is almost kinda funny to see a Saudi ship being victimized by a different type of terrorism than the kind that we all know they sponsor themselves. Serves them right. However on another note, this type of behavior is unacceptable. Certainly there will always be some sort of acts of piracy on the seas somewhere, but I think it is likely that history will show this will be the biggest act they will be able to pull off for a long, long time. A couple of well placed smart bombs or cruise missiles from whatever country has finally had enough will likely bring this most recent chapter of piracy to an end.
Actually, the problem is that you don't know WHERE the pirates are. It's like saying a few well placed missiles will take out Osama Bin Laden.
Also, piracy has been building up to this. I've been watching piracy for a while, and in recent months, piracy has started really booming. Hoenstly, I wasn't really surprised when this happened.
Well, the bigger question is why? They are not going anywhere at the moment, and if they get close to anything of significance they will be stopped. The only question is then, what are they doing other than delaying an oil delivery?
Somebody from somewhere is going to storm the ship(s) at some point and they know that. So where is the profit in this picture? If they are true pirates, there must be a profit motive somewhere, otherwise, pirates don’t concern themselves with it.
They obviously moved to tanker to Somalia so they can make a quick getaway once the recovery teams show up. And I would say this, if the recovery teams are mercenaries, none of the hijackers will make it off the ship alive, at least not to the shoreline. So what is the point, and who really is going to benefit from this action?
Often, the companies just pay ransoms. I can't remember the last time a government successfully captured pirates. Usually, they either get a ransom or manage to escape.
These pirates have no style at all. They need Captain Jack Sparrow.
In fact they'll only negotiate with Captain Jack, as per their demands.
Regarding my last comment, the Chinese are not going to be any nicer about it. If some pirates have a Chinese flagged ship with stuff that belongs to China, you can bet your ass the People’s Armed Police or the People’s Liberation Army is going to come looking for it. And they are not going to be very nice about it either and they really don’t care what people think about it.
Yeah, but China also doesn't feel like invading Somalia.
Besides, this is Saudi, not Chinese.
Well of course they are going to keep hijacking, they keep getting paid off. I say bomb the shipand sink it with the hijackers on board.
A $100 million oil tanker?
Ok, as I read more into the article and I am starting to get confused. Let me get this straight. It is a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in cargo, flying a Hong Kong flag being operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, now being held by Somali pirates.
I just hope they aren't insured by AIG.
They probably just haven't got the word that Barack Obama won the election yet. Don't worry, as soon as they find out, everything will be ok. This kind of stuff will come to a halt now that Obama has been elected. The world will live as one.
Ha ha, that is funny. I like your sense of humor. You are right, they must not have heard the U.S. made a vote for change, which likely also means an end to piracy on the high seas.
WTF does Obama being president have anything to do with stopping pirates except to try andrive irrelevant politics into this international commerce problem.
It has everything to do with it...doesn't it? I mean, I've read at least a dozen articles saying that the world was a better place now and terrorism and hatred had come to an end. So I just assume these guys don't have TV's or radio's and haven't got the word yet.
Bitter are we? I had 8 years of Bush to suffer through, so suck it up and stop whinning.
Wait, I thought Obama didn't like people who cling to their guns.
Who's whining? I am sitting on the edge of my seat right now in great anticipation to see all of the wonderful change that is going to happen. I am also sitting here in great anticipation to see who or what deals with these pirates. No matter what, I am a proud American and will support whatever is voted into office. The last thing I will ever do is encourage piracy or anarchy.
Mike,
You must read highschool news paper articles because no where in the adult media would someone be so stupid to make claims like that. And to cast Obama's message in such a light due to some stupid people shows you to be part of the problem, not the solution.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fg-worldreax6-2008nov06,0,3267776.story
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newstrategy
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/2008/07/obamas_new_strategy_for_a_new.html
http://blogs.princeton.edu/14points/2008/11/obamas_triumph_a_new_world.html
http://www.zimbio.com/Barack+Obama/articles/2930/Change+New+World+Order+Obama+New+American
http://homebusiness.about.com/b/2008/11/05/obama-wins-election-a-new-world.htm
http://allafrica.com/stories/200811040379.html
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/11/05/obama_improves_us_image.html
http://www.iraedeus.com/obamas-new-world/
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/06/nations-look-obama-president-world/
http://thesop.org/index.php?article=13957
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/25/AR2008102502011_pf.html
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081105070505.sjsfsgyt&show_article=1
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1856668,00.html
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=29800
It's all suppose to be ok now. We have no more worries. It's like magic, overnight, everything went from horror to wonder.......the sun started shining again, after we have had to live in the dark now for so long.
I guarantee that none of those stories talk about there being world peace or the end of terrorism or about being OK, etc.
Seriously Mike, you need to get over it. Please cite anywhere in any of those articles where there is a stated writer's opinion, or where Obama's opinion, is anything even close to your skewed, partisan bull.
Am I to take this as your not capable of comprehending all the "High School Papers" that I took the time to give you?
There is no partisanship here, just my view of the world news that came out within a few days of the election. Perhaps you have forgotten how our world "changed", over night, magically?
what you provided me has no relevance to the idea that somehow the world is reborn with the election of Obama. Providing irrelevant information does not bolster your case just because you linked to sites and sources that are credible. The information is not there to support your sarcastic supposition.
Listen BS...and allow me to say how appropriate your initials are......I am sorry you have no sense of humor and take everything so serious. It was just a joke, saying these pirates probably haven't heard.....I really didn't mean to get you so bent out of shape.......take a chill pill...please.
On the flip side of this discussion, I have found it amazing, how the media has been telling us that we live in a better world now because of the election. As we are about to enter into this third Clinton term, suddenly, like magic, all the gloom and doom as come to an end and because Obama was elected, everything is ok. Hows that working for you?
The Media has not been telling us anything of the sort. None of the links above point to something that talks about some utopia we all exist in now.
I'll bet your eyes are brown...aren't they...lol
Amazing how one can see things from their own slant and become incapable to view things objectively.
Keep licking that lemon.....who needs a sense of humor anyway...right?
How about we try to actually argue.
Give me an exerpt from one of those links that supports your supposition.
I can't match wits with the witless. You obviously come here to "argue".....I don't. I don't mind having a discussion with anyone, but I'll leave the arguing to you.......go for it......have all you want. There are plenty more like you who love to argue. Find one of them and go for it.
You do realize that argument is different than fight right?
I wish to hear your argument on the matter. Calling me names rather than actually posting support for your position does not help you.
I haven't called you a single name. I've said it twice already, I meant the original post as a joke. Sorry you have no sense of humor and feel the need to be so serious. So how does one support a scarstic comment? You asked for examples of the media writing about how the election "changed the world".....I provided you with about a dozen....yet your still here...like a 1st grader.....saying....."My dog's bigger than your dog"...lol
I can't match wits with the witless
News flash, that is name calling.
I can accept it as a joke if you would stop talking about it as if it wasn't.
If you want to claim it to be a joke you can't say "It was just a joke, but lets get serious... <repeat the joke>"
One line is all you need: "It was just a joke".
I am starting to think your issue isn't with me or my comment, but you are coming to the realization that the change you voted for and supported, isn't going to happen......is that it?
You watching, as we all are, all of these liberal retreads coming back to Washington for a third Clinton term and thinking......where's the change?
Looks like we have a modern day barbary piarate problem, except that the pirates are somolian.
I think we need to have a few more MEUs in the areas.
We have some (see CTF-150), but it's too small. Really, all it can do is repel pirate attacks.
What we really need is a big, local navy to join in. India is one potential. South Africa could potentially be another, but it's too small. Egypt is a third, but it's also too small.
thats why we should only buy American made products!
haha @ the geeks aruging.
send the SAS to kill all the pirates. don't give in to tem or they will only do it again
SAS for the win!! :D
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