Somali pirates hijack UK-flagged ship: Bulgaria

Reuters ^ | Jan 2, 2010

[rdl6989]

SOFIA (Reuters) - Somali pirates hijacked a British-flagged vehicle carrier off the Somali coast late on Friday, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said.

The Asian Glory was seized about 600 miles east of the Somali coast before it joined a convoy heading for the Gulf of Aden, ministry spokesman Dragovest Goranov said.

Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars from seizing ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, linking Europe to Asia, and are also hunting far into the Indian Ocean to evade foreign navies sent to protect commercial shipping.

The European Union's counter-piracy force, EU Navfor and the British Foreign Office confirmed that the British-flagged Asian Glory had been seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean on Friday.

Navfor spokesman Commander John Harbour said the ship was well outside Navfor's area of operation when seized.

[rdl6989]

...the ship was well outside Navfor's area of operation when seized.

[rodguy911]

The shipping companies better start self-insuring and arming these vessels,nothing like blowing these wannbe teenage Pirate/terrorists out of the water to stop all this.

[al baby]

So would bombing the piss out of somlian ports or better yet mine them or just let out a press release that you have mined them

[rodguy911]

Exactly we need to start doing something or become a laughing stock.

I mean think about it we are letting a bunch of teenage thugs with machine guns terrorize shipping in a key part of the world.

When will we learn that all these idiots understand is brute force. If we bury enough of them at sea they will move on to their next con.

If they are 600 miles offshore of Somali what is to keep them from being 600 miles off Fla. We already have a small pirate problem in the Caribbean/Bahamas,it could get worse if there is no one to stop them.

[ASA Vet]

It's not like we don't know where they are.

Plug this into a google map, zoom in with satellite view, and see what's there.

5.341525,48.532008

[AceMineral]

Why are we learning this from the Bulgars and not the Brits?

[FreeperFlirt]

hijack me once its there fault, hijack me twice its my fault!

[rdl6989]

JDAM’s be upon them, or maybe not with Barry Hussein in office.

[jonathonandjennifer]

Watched a show on one of the cable news channels this week about the Somali pirates. Some ships now carrying security guards without weapons. When one ship was boarded by pirates, the guards jumped in the ocean, knowing they would be shot by the pirates if they stayed on board.

Security guard job openings available for anyone interested!!?

[rdl6989]

I’m sure they’ll get lots of applicants for that. /sarcasm

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Once the British flag was respected and feared in those waters. A sad dy for the UK.

[rodguy911]

All this has to do with insurance rules and regs. Insurance becomes void if the ships carry weapons.

If shipping companies allow themselves to be held hostage by antiquated insurance rules and regs instead of self insuring or getting together and creating an insurance pool, hijacking/piracy will only get worse.