Word: somalia
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...months ago, when Somali pirates captured a Ukrainian 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...
...times the mass of a U.S. aircraft carrier, was seized 450 nautical miles out to sea, well south of the pirates' usual hunting ground in the Gulf of Aden. Its capture has experts worried that the pirates' audacity and technical capabilities have been underestimated. (See pictures of piracy in Somalia...
...hijacking of the Sirius Star is also an embarrassment to NATO and the U.S., which had deployed naval vessels to protect shipping in the area in response to the recent uptick in attacks. According to the International Maritime Board, there have been some 80 pirate attacks off Somalia's coast this year. More than half of those were repelled, but the remainder have made for a highly lucrative year for Somali piracy...
...already provide around half of the 50,000-strong ISAF force in Afghanistan, with the British, French, Germans and Dutch making the principle contributions. On top of that, this week the E.U. launched its first naval operation: a mission to fight piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia. Since the beginning of 2007, the E.U. has had 15 'battlegroups', each with at least 1,500 soldiers, dealing with local crises around the globe. "They are not just chicken, they are not just cheap. They have real resource problems," says one high level NATO diplomat of European governments...
...pictures of Somalia's Pirates...