Word: sirius
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...Somalia's pirates demonstrated the growth in their sophistication and capability last month when they seized the giant Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star some 450 nautical miles out at sea - well beyond the pirates' previous range. One of the men involved in that raid, 24-year-old Mohamed Dashishle described a distinctly low-tech operation, though organized by men he said had once trained in the Somali coast guard. One of the pirates' "mother ships" spotted the tanker and deployed three small skiffs to surround it. Dashishle told TIME that the pirates simply had to brandish their rocket-propelled grenade...
...Shortly after the Sirius Star was hijacked, the Shabab and other Islamist groups in Somalia denounced its capture on the grounds that it was impermissible to seize a Muslim-owned vessel. They even threatened to attack the pirates and free the ship...
...Somalia, where any semblance of a functioning state broke down years ago, are thought to have attacked more than 90 ships. In a recent 48-hour period, they apprehended vessels from Greece, Thailand and Hong Kong, and on Nov. 15 took the biggest prize of all, the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, laden with an estimated $100 million in crude...
...presence in the region is helping deter and disrupt criminal attacks off the Somali coast, but the situation with the Sirius Star clearly indicates the pirates' ability to adapt their tactics and methods of attack," Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the U.S. Navy's Combined Maritime Forces, said in a statement earlier this week. Gortney urged shipping companies to take greater care to protect themselves, noting that 10 of the last 15 ships to be attacked in the Gulf of Aden were traveling outside a corridor recommended by the International Maritime Organization and carried no onboard security. (See TIME...
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...