More Details Emerge On Yesterday's Pirate Attacks

Yesterday, I reported on the developing story of another pirate attack on US flagged shipping. More details have emerged on the pirate attack on the Liberty Sun, a US-flagged ship that had just delivered humanitarian aid to Sudan.

Somali pirates attacked and damaged an American ship carrying humanitarian aid Tuesday, but the ship and crew were safe under Navy escort, the military and shipping company said.

The pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at the Liberty Sun as it carried food for famine-wracked African nations, said the vessel's owner, Liberty Maritime Corp. The ship was en route from Houston to Mombasa, Kenya, with a roughly 20-member crew, officials said.

"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets," crew member Thomas Urbik told his mother by e-mail. "We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. (A) rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out."

After the ship reported being attacked around 11:30 a.m. EDT, the USS Bainbridge - the destroyer that assisted in the rescue of the hijacked Maersk Alabama last week - sailed to its aid, said Navy Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

The Bainbridge arrived at 5:30 p.m. EDT to find that the pirates had left, and there were no injuries, Hanzlik said.

The ship was continuing on its way to Mombasa late Tuesday, he said.

This is the second incident involving US flagged shipping that was delivering humanitarian aid to Africa when it came under attack from pirates.

The pirates aren't going to stop their attacks anytime soon unless the world puts its collective foot down to stop it.

UPDATE:
Kenyan officials estimate that the Somali pirates made $150 million in their attacks on shipping in 2008. That's why the attacks will continue. Paying the ransoms shows the pirates that they have little to fear from reprisal, the US and French operations notwithstanding.

Will the second attack on shipping carrying humanitarian aid get the UN to act? I doubt it. These pirates, for all their talk about how they are not threatening the lives of those crews they capture, are putting lives in danger - the hundreds of thousands who are benefiting from humanitarian aid shipments brought in by those ships such as the Maersk Alabama and Liberty Sun. It's yet another reason to deal with the safe havens onshore to stop the pirates before they get out to sea where they are more difficult to track.

UPDATE:
Somali pirates are vowing to hunt down and capture and kill American sailors. They tried yesterday, but were thwarted by an American crew that fought back. The pirates are going to find out that the American crews aren't going to sit back and allow themselves to become hostages and pawns in a moneymaking venture for the pirate leaders who are safely ensconced back in ports in Somalia.

"We will seek out the Americans and if we capture them we will slaughter them," said a 25-year-old pirate based in the Somali port of Harardhere who gave only his first name, Ismail.

"We will target their ships because we know their flags. Last night, an American-flagged ship escaped us by a whisker. We have showered them with rocket-propelled grenades," boasted Ismail, who did not take part in the attack on the Liberty Sun.

The move comes after U.S. Navy sharpshooters killed three pirates Sunday to win the release of a hijacked American sea captain, Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama.

The French are starting to increase the pace of raids on pirates who are shadowing shipping, taking out a pirate ship overnight:

The French forces, meanwhile, launched an early morning attack on a pirate ship after spotting it Tuesday with a surveillance helicopter and observing the pirates overnight. The raid thwarted the bandits' planned attack on the Liberian cargo ship Safmarine Asia, the French Defense Ministry said.

The statement called the pirate vessel a "mother ship" — usually a seized foreign ship that pirates use to transport speedboats far out to sea and resupply them. The ship was intercepted 550 miles (900 kilometers) east of the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

The 11 detained pirates were being held on the Nivose, a French frigate among the international fleet trying to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden. France already is holding several pirates for prosecution.

The one mistake with the French strategy is holding these pirates for prosecution. They're needlessly creating a legal problem where none should exist.