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...vessel carrying 33 battle tanks, the temptation may have been to laugh them off as a bunch of ragtag local gunmen who had improbably gotten lucky. But the pirates of Somalia proved they have more than dumb luck going for them last Saturday, when they seized the Saudi supertanker MV Sirius Star and its cargo of more than $100 million worth of crude oil. This occurred despite the attention of navies from the U.S., NATO and others that were patrolling the area to protect shipping. (The Ukrainian vessel, MV Faina, remains one of 11 captive vessels currently moored off pirate...
However, the seizure of a Saudi-owned oil supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, and its 25-member crew early Saturday morning in the Indian Ocean might trigger new thinking on whether to launch such a strike. It was shocking on two counts. One, the pirates have typically taken vessels within 200 miles of shore, but the supertanker was taken 450 miles off the Somali coast. International navies have been protecting a narrow corridor farther north toward the Gulf of Aden, but this seizure demonstrates the pirates' dramatically expanded reach. Two, the buccaneers have never taken over an oil supertanker, capable...
...boats and skiffs, they have attacked more than 80 ships and hijacked at least 30, collecting anywhere from $18 million to $30 million in ransom, according to the British strategic think tank Chatham House. Big paydays have made them progressively bolder: one gang is still holding on to the MV Faina, the Ukrainian freighter carrying a consignment of Russian tanks that was hijacked on Sept...
...rediscovering, catching pirates on the high seas is next to impossible. So far, the warships have warded off some pirate attacks but not enough to scare the gangs. "We hijack ships every opportunity we get," says pirate commander Sugule Ali, speaking by satellite phone from the bridge of the MV Faina...
...inspire confidence. The pirates operate their increasingly lucrative industry with impunity from a number of fishing villages along the Puntland coast, where they currently hold at least 12 vessels, and more than 200 of their crew members, awaiting ransom payments. The best known of these is the Ukrainian freighter MV Faina, and its cargo of tanks and other weapons, hijacked almost a month ago, although some 73 vessels have been captured this year netting the pirates as much as $30 million in ransom payments...