Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By staff writers From: NewsCore 
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Source: DTN News / Reuters
Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme said the pirates seized the Greek-managed MV York off Kenya on Saturday afternoon, less than 12 hours after it sailed from the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
The European naval force, EU Navfor, said the vessel had a crew of 17, including a German master, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos, and was seized 50 miles (80 kms) from Mombasa.
"She was taken at 1730 local time. She was sailing empty after discharging her LPG cargo at the Shimanzi oil terminal in Mombasa," Mwangura told Reuters.
A pirate who identified himself as Hassan told Reuters by telephone that the tanker was now heading for Garad, a pirate base on the coast of central Somalia.
A lack of effective central government in the lawless Horn of Africa nation has allowed piracy to flourish off its shores. Somali pirates are holding 19 vessels with 428 hostages. Typically they earn a ransom for their release.
The vessel has a deadweight of 5,076 tonnes.
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With African countries reluctant to resolve the problem, the U.S., European and other foreign navies that capture pirates increasingly have been confronted with the choice of bringing them all the way home to face trial or simply letting them go -- a practice known as "catch and release."
The Obama administration has argued that prosecution is necessary to deter Somali outlaws who have disrupted some of the world's busiest shipping lanes by hijacking vessels and demanding millions of dollars in ransom. On Tuesday, in the first U.S. piracy case in decades, a Somali teenager pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to involvement in last year's hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S.-flagged container ship.
Last month, the Navy handed over 11 more suspected pirates for prosecution in federal court in Norfolk. They were captured in two incidents last month after they launched attacks on what they thought -- in the dark of night -- were unarmed merchant vessels but turned out to be U.S. warships on patrol in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Reluctant hosts
Under international law, any country may prosecute pirates, regardless of whether its citizens or companies were victimized. But the U.S. government has drawn the line at cases involving American interests. As a result, the Navy has been stuck holding 10 other Somalis it captured April 5 after rescuing a vessel under attack in the Arabian Sea.
In that case, the McFaul, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, apprehended a band of pirates that had hijacked an Indian cargo ship and its nine crew members and was trying to board another Indian vessel. Shortly afterward, the Navy transferred the pirates to the Carney, another U.S. warship in the region, "whose mission could better support further transfer of the suspected pirates to another country for prosecution," said Lt. Matthew Allen, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain.
The handover attempt fell through, however, prompting the Navy to transfer the suspects back to the McFaul, which is on a counter-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden. The Navy did not identify the country that declined to take the Somalis.
"My preference is that we don't hold the pirates. But when you have them, you have them," said Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of U.S. naval operations. "I'm kind of letting the diplomatic channels work it out."
Meanwhile, the Navy says the accused pirates are detained "in a covered area on the exterior" of the McFaul, where they are fed the same food as the sailors. "The one thing that is for certain is that they gain weight while they're with us," Roughead said.
A senior U.S. official said the Obama administration is hoping to clinch a deal in the next several days for another country to prosecute the accused pirates. The official said prosecuting the Somalis in the United States was not under consideration because the case did not involve U.S. victims or interests. 
Source: DTN News (Archive)
el is carrying 86,000 tons of crude oil worth about $50 million.
The special forces had been aboard the Russian anti-submarine destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov, which rushed to the scene after Wednesday's attack. The special forces boarded a helicopter and rappelled down to the Moscow University, Rear Adm. Jan Thornqvist, force commander of the EU Naval Force, told The Associated Press.
Shots were fired during the raid but no one was injured, Thornqvist said.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Alexei Kuznetsov said the pirates are being held aboard the tanker. Russian news agencies reported the death of one pirate during the raid, but Kuznetsov told AP that information was still being looked into.
The crew of the Moscow University had previously told officials they believed the pirates were trying to enter the engine room, Thornqvist said. The ship had been disabled and was not moving. Safe rooms, where crews seek shelter, are typically stocked with food, water and communications equipment and have reinforced doors that can only be opened from the inside.
The ship's owner, Novoship, said in a statement that the decision to free the ship was made knowing "that the crew was under safe cover inaccessible to the pirates and that the lives and health of the sailors was not threatened by anything."
Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force, called the rescue "an excellent operation all around." He said the EU Naval Force had been working at a tactical level with the Russians, and that EU Naval Force personnel talked to the Russian crew by VHF radio. He said the EU had offered support to the Russians.
The attack occurred about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of the Somali coast. The ship was not registered with the Maritime Security Center, said Harbour. The ship's route was from the Red Sea to China, the ship's owner said.
Novoship is a subsidiary of Sovcomflot, which is owned by the Russian government.
The fact that Russian special forces stormed the Moscow University shortly after it was taken over is in line with a trend by international military forces who are more aggressively combating piracy. In February, Danish special forces prevented the hijacking of a ship after pirates had boarded it. Special forces from the Danish Absalon boarded the Ariella while the crew locked themselves in a secure room.
EU Naval Force ships are disrupting pirate groups and destroying their ships at a much higher rate than in previous years. U.S. warships have fired back on pirates and destroyed their boats in several skirmishes in the last several weeks.
Pirates currently hold more than 300 hostages taken from ships attacked off East Africa in the last several months. Eleven suspected Somali pirates were indicted in U.S. federal court late last month, but the international community has had problems formulating an accepted policy to try and jail pirate suspects.
Along with the increased pressure by international navies against pirates has come some criticism.
On Wednesday, a French prosecutor said a French rescuer was responsible for killing the skipper of a sailboat hijacked by Somali pirates during a rescue operation.
Chief prosecutor Hever Pavy in the western French city of Rennes said investigators found a French military bullet had killed Florent Lemacon in April 2009 when a special intervention team came to rescue his yacht, the Tanit, off the Somali coast.
Four other hostages were saved after a week on the hijacked ship. Three suspected pirates who survived the rescue operation are on trial in France. Source: DTN News / RIA Novosti
escort a convoy of five commercial ships through pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
"The convoy will consist of five vessels and the Russian warship will ensure their safe passage," a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said.
The Russian Pacific Fleet task force comprising the Marshal Shaposhnikov, the MB-37 salvage tug and the Pechenga tanker arrived in the Gulf of Aden on March 29 to join the anti-piracy mission in the region.
Navy commandos from the Marshal Shaposhnikov freed the Russian Moscow University tanker during a 22-minute operation on May 6. Ten attackers were detained and one was killed. None of the crew members was injured.
The Marshal Shaposhnikov made a port call in Djibouti on Monday where it replenished food and water supplies.
The Russian Navy will use the Djibouti port, located in the Horn of Africa, as its temporary base for anti-piracy operations in the region.
The current task force is the fourth group of warships from the Russian Pacific Fleet engaged in the anti-piracy mission off Somalia, with the previous three task forces led by the Admiral Vinogradov, Admiral Panteleyev and the Admiral Tributs destroyers. The Northern and Baltic fleets have also sent task forces to the region. Source: DTN News / Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) ATHENS, Greece/Greek - May 12, 2010: Pirates have seized a Greek-owned 
ship with 23 people on board in the Gulf of Aden, the ship's managers say.
The Eleni P, which is managed by Eurobulk, was carrying a cargo of iron ore from the Black Sea to China.
Eurobulk's Marcos Vassilikos told the BBC that pirates fired shots when they took the ship, but that the crew were not thought to have been injured.
Somali pirates have hijacked dozens of ships this year, despite the presence of international naval forces.
The Eleni P's crew included 19 Filipinos as well as two Greeks, one Ukrainian and one Romanian, Mr Vassilikos said.
He said the ship was seized at about 0600 GMT, off the coast of Somalia.
War and weak government in Somalia have allowed piracy to flourish along its coast, with frequent attacks on the busy shipping lanes that link Europe and Asia.
On Tuesday, Somali pirates released an 11,000-tonne refrigerated cargo ship that had been held for two months, after a ransom was paid.
Somali pirates have seized a Liberia-flagged and Greek-owned ship with up to 24 people aboard in the Gulf of Aden, a Greek coast guard official said on Wednesday.
"We have been informed that the Greek-owned ship Eleni P was seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," the official said, declining to be named.
The ship, managed by Eurobulk Ltd, was carrying iron and sailing from Ukraine to China via Singapore. It had 23 or 24 people on board, two of whom were Greek and the rest Filipinos, the official said.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Charles Dick)
Source: DTN News / Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - May 6, 2010: One Somali pirate was killed and 10 captured in an armed rescue mission by a Russian warship to free a Russian-owned oil tanker hijacked off the coast of Yemen, state-run RIA news agency said on Thursday.
Russian sailors from the anti-ship cruiser Marshal Shaposhnikov have released a Russian tanker hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, a high-ranking official from the maritime coalition forces said on Thursday.
Citing an unnamed Russian navy official, RIA said the Russian warship returned fire after the pirates started shooting, resulting in "the death of one of the pirates".
A Russian defence ministry official said earlier on Thursday all 23 crew on board the China-bound MV Moscow University tanker, which was seized on Wednesday with $52 million worth of crude oil, were alive and well following the rescue.
Source: DTN News / World Bulletin
(NSI News Source Info) ANKARA, Turkey - February 21, 2010: Turkish na
vy seals have prevented an attack on a Japanese merchant vessel off the coast of Somalia, Turkish military said Sunday.
spokesman said on Tuesday.
The task force led by the Neustrashimy (Fearless) frigate will replace the Admiral Chabanenko destroyer from Russia's Northern Fleet, the spokesman said, adding that Russian warships would continue regular patrols near the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden in 2010.
"This is due to continued pirate attacks on peaceful civilian vessels, and also a real threat for sailors who are Russian nationals," the spokesman said.
The Neustrashimy completed an anti-piracy mission in February 2009. The upcoming deployment will be the Neustrashimy's second tour. The frigate's armament includes SS-N-25 Switchblade anti-ship missiles, SA-N-9 Gauntlet SAM, a 100-mm gun, torpedoes and depth charges. The frigate also carries a Ka-27 ASW helicopter.
The Russian task force comprising the Admiral Chabanenko and a support ship arrived in the Gulf of Aden in late November for Russia's anti-piracy mission.
The Russian Navy has maintained a constant presence off the Horn of Africa, with each fleet dispatching warships on a rotational basis. Russia joined international anti-piracy efforts off the Somali coast in October 2008.
Pirates based in Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991, hijacked more than 35 vessels in 2009, and have already seized two this year.
The E-3 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) is built by Boeing Defense & Space Group. The role of the E-3 is to carry out airborne surveillance, and command, control and communications (C3) functions for both tactical and air defence forces.
Commanders are seeking to back up a five-ship counterpiracy task force with one of the airborne warning and control system surveillance planes, possibly sharing it with the allied International Security Assistance Force fighting in Afghanistan.
“It would not be inconceivable, for example, having a dual use of Awacs maybe located somewhere in the region and being able to perform missions for ISAF and missions for counterpiracy,” Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, the committee chairman, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Brussels today.
Stalked by warships from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and countries including Russia and China, pirates operating from safe havens in Somalia are ranging as far as 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) out to sea to prey on merchant vessels.
Pirates struck 147 times off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden during the first nine months of 2009, up from 63 attacks in the year-earlier period, the International Maritime Bureau said. A tenth of the world’s trade passes through that sea corridor.
Somalia’s lack of an effective government after almost two decades of civil war has turned it into a base for gangs that seize commercial ships. Pirates often hold them for ransom, as when they extorted $2.8 million for the release of the 24 Ukrainian crew members of a British-owned bulk carrier last week after a seven-month ordeal.
NATO Task Force
Warships from the U.S., Italy, Portugal and Canada make up the current NATO task force, cobbled together from a group that is normally used for routine exercises and port visits.
Known as “eyes in the sky,” the Awacs are modified Boeing 707s topped with a rotating dome housing radar equipment. NATO’s 17-plane Awacs fleet, managed by crews from 15 countries, is based in Geilenkirchen, Germany.
Use of the Awacs in a conflict zone requires unanimous approval by the 28 NATO allies. It took months for NATO last year to approve the deployment of Awacs over Afghanistan to monitor the increasingly crowded airspace there.
The Awacs request for the piracy mission “has just come in so I would feel the discussion will start the beginning of next year,” said Di Paola, whose committee consists of high- ranking officers from all NATO countries.
‘Not for Free’
“Deploying an Awacs costs money, it’s not for free,” Di Paola, 65, said. “There will be some serious discussion up to which point this can be done.”
Di Paola rebutted concerns that there is a lack of coordination between the NATO and EU anti-piracy task forces and solo ships from other countries.
The EU’s six-frigate force may start patrolling further into the Indian Ocean as pirate activity widens, U.K. Rear Admiral Peter Hudson, commander of the EU mission, said in an interview last week.
NATO ships have chased sea bandits as far as the approaches to the Seychelles islands, and the various fleets have working arrangements to divide up their zone of coverage depending on where the pirates are, Di Paola said.
“There is a lot of maritime space over there,” Di Paola said. “The pirates are responding in an intelligent way, moving wherever they think there’s a lack of presence. If NATO forces for a certain period are more concentrated on the Gulf of Aden, this allows the European Union to move away.”
Somali Coastguards patrol boats. IS THIS A JOKE!
Somalia's government called on Saturday for an international peace plan like President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy, saying it would be more effective and far cheaper than current efforts to combat Somali piracy.
o) DUBAI, UAE - October 27, 2009: United States military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drones normally used for missile attacks or reconnaissance are now protecting the Somali coast from a recent increase of piracy. (Image/photo: MQ-9 Reaper)
The military now has its MQ-9 Reaper UAV patrolling in the Indian Ocean, marking the first time UAVs have been used for safety patrols.
Specifically, the MQ-9 Reaper, a 36-foot long craft that can fly up to 16 hours, has been used for coordinated strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The UAVs utilize laser, radar and infrared, and have the ability to carry up to 12 guided missiles and munitions.
The drones patrolling Somalia aren't equipped with weaponry as of yet, but depending on thenumber of hijackings, it's a future possibility, military officials told the Associated Press.
“What we hope will happen is that they will get much earlier warning of suspicious vessels or suspected [pirate] mother ships that can then be targeted by the naval vessels. Or alerts and broadcasts can be sent out indicating the positions of these ships [and] indicating they should keep as clear a distance as possible," said London International Maritime Bureau, Cyrus Mody.
The U.S. military has used 3-foot-long drones in Somalia before, but this is a significant step forward to try and stifle dangerous pirate attacks. An international group of warships from the United States, Japan, China, South Korea and other nations are patrolling near Somalia, but the pirate attacks are still occur.
piracy exercises, a Pacific Fleet official said on Friday.
The three-day exercises will include Russia's Admiral Tributs destroyer and two Chinese warships, the Zhoushan and Xuzhou, along with a number of support vessels, and will focus on seek and detain operations.
"A new element in these exercises will be the search, location and detention of a dummy pirate vessel," the official told RIA Novosti.
After the exercises end on September 20, the Russian warship will resume its work to escort commercial vessels through waters off the Somali coast.
The third Russian task force from the Pacific Fleet, led by the Admiral Tributs with two helicopters on board, arrived in the Gulf of Aden on July 30.
The previous two task forces from the Pacific Fleet were led by the Admiral Vinogradov and Admiral Panteleyev destroyers.
The fleet's warships have escorted over 100 Russian and foreign commercial ships and thwarted several attacks by pirates since January 2009.
The Pacific Fleet will send a fourth task force, comprising a missile destroyer, two support ships and a naval infantry unit, to the Gulf of Aden after Admiral Tributs finishes its current anti-piracy mission in the region at the end of October.
Around 35 warships from the navies of 16 countries are currently deployed off Somalia's coast to counter frequent pirate attacks on key trade routes.
Pirate attacks on commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Somalia have amounted to 148 since the beginning of the year, with over 40 ships captured and at least 270 taken hostage.
commercial ships pass each year, is one of the world's busiest seaways – and one of the most dangerous. Since the beginning of this year, there have been 138 reported pirate attacks on commercial vessels, of which 33 were successful. (Image: This Saudi Arabian supertanker was hijacked off the Kenyan coast)
counter-piracy operations and Combined Task Force 151, a multinational coalition whose mission is to protect against piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia. (Image: Pirates near Somalia's shore) The command rotates among partner navies regularly. The U.S. Navy and its task force partners actively coordinate with and support the anti-piracy operations of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield naval forces in the region, as well as those of the European Union's naval Operation Atalanta. 
unmanned drones outfitted with cameras and sensors.
According to Time magazine, about 75 members of the U.S. military will support the mission in the Seychelles islands off the coast of Africa.
It wasn't immediately clear how many Reaper drones will be dedicated to the effort, which is expected to begin next month and continue for several months.
The drones are capable of carrying missiles and bombs, but they're not going to be armed. Officials said the objective in countering piracy is to board ships and capture the pirates, instead of blowing them up.
The majority of hijackings on the seas have occurred along the Somali coast - more than 130 this year. Monsoon season has caused a lull in the number of attacks, but officials fear a spike as the weather calms. 
surveillance mission over the boat, the navy said on Thursday.
There were no reported casualties or damage from the incident which occurred on Wednesday morning off the pirate-infested coast of Somalia, said a statement from the Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command.
"Somali pirates aboard the motor vessel (M/V) Win Far fired what appeared to be a large calibre weapon at a US navy SH-60B helicopter," the statement said.
"The helicopter was conducting a routine surveillance flight of M/V Win Far, currently held at anchorage by Somali pirates south of Garacad, Somalia, when the incident occurred," it added.
The shooting came as the helicopter returned to the USS Chancellorsville, where a video recording of the incident was noted, it said, adding that during the flight the crew was unaware of the attack.
The navy identified the Win Far as a Taiwanese-flagged vessel which was seized by pirates earlier this year.
"Over the past 135 days it has been used as a 'mother ship' to conduct other known pirate attacks, most notably the US-flagged Maersk-Alabama in April," it said.
According to the US navy, the pirates are holding hostage more than 30 crew members of the Win Far.
So far this year, there have been 114 attempted attacks on merchant vessels in the region, 29 of them successful, according to the US navy.
The world's naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year to curb attacks by pirates threatening one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.
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