Posted on 10/29/2007 8:16:36 AM PDT by blam
Japanese ship hijacked in Africa
Pirates have hijacked a Japanese ship off the East African coast - the latest in a series of similar incidents near the war-torn country of Somalia.
The vessel, thought to be a tanker with a crew of Burmese, Philippine and South Korean sailors, was seized in the Gulf of Aden early on Sunday.
Officials say they are trying to find out what the pirates' demands are.
The area is notorious for piracy - of 16 reported hijackings worldwide this year, 11 were off the Somali coast.
Lawless waters
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said they received a distress call from the vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
"We tried to contact the vessel, but there was absolutely no contact," the IMB's Cyrus Mody told BBC News.
He said coalition forces in the area were contacted, and they confirmed the ship had been taken into Somali territorial waters.
There are thought to be 23 crew members on board the vessel, none of whom is Japanese.
The incident comes two weeks after a cargo ship was hijacked on its way to Mombasa in Kenya.
The IMB said there was still no information on the safety of the crew.
Analysts say Somali waters are increasingly lawless, and merchant ships are advised to stay 200 miles from its shores.
The IMB rates Somalia as the second most high risk country for piracy in the world, after Indonesia.
Q-ships.
Hard to believe there are still pirates in the world. Even when I was a kid I thought they were the stuff of legends.
I’m still amazed they don’t put guns on the decks of these ships.
Someone around here has a chart showing global warming is caused by a lack of pirates and charts the loss of pirates with the increase in temp.
So, I’m glad to see them come back and save the planet.
Honor would recognize a Q ship. Not the IMB.
nijas vs pirates. Looks like the pirates win this time. arrrrrgh
A brace of 20mm guns is enough. How hard is it to mount those?
There have always been pirates, and always will be as long as there are men who go down to the sea in ships.......
Of all the nations on the Earth, I think the Phillipines have the best punishment for pirates. The law on the books says “electrocuted until they catch fire.”
How about the US Navy quietly creating a Qship that looks like a normal tanker/freighter, but contains a couple of squads of heavily armed Marines along with a couple of concealed M2’s and a 40mm cannon? Then send it in trolling in these areas.
I saw part of a documentary on the History Channel last week about the return of pirates; they had some sea lawyer on it who stated that it was against "International Law"© to arm merchant ships -- the international version of "gun control."
We can see how well that's working...
Yup, just doin' the lord (Allah) work. (In their eyes, anyway.)
Better pirate medicine would be to have a Predator-B flying high, and just taking out any craft that looks like a pirate craft approaching a merchant ship
Interesting!
Stick the guns on any how and tell the lawyers they can arrest the crews themselves. I’d pay to see that.
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