The Associated Press November 19, 2008
A rare victory in war against pirates
Indian navy frigate sinks a bandit `mother ship' after being attacked in the lawless Gulf of Aden
By Sam Dolnick
NEW DELHI–The ship, operating off the coast of Oman in the lawless Gulf of Aden, was crewed by heavily armed men, some carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Behind it was a pair of speedboats – the sort pirates often use when they launch attacks on merchant ships in these violent seas.
What followed, officials say, was a rare victory in a sea war against Somalia-based piracy that has become increasingly violent, and where pirates are ever more bold.
A patrolling Indian navy frigate quickly identified the vessel as a "mother ship" – a mobile attack base used to take gangs of pirates and smaller speedboats into deep water – and ordered it to stop and be searched.
"They responded on the offensive and said that they would blow up the Indian naval ship," Cmdr. Nirad Sinha, a navy spokesperson, said yesterday in New Delhi.
Then the pirates opened fire.
Navy officials wouldn't say how long the battle lasted Tuesday, but the frigate, the INS Tabar, is a 120-metre war machine, carrying cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and machine guns, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
By the time the battle was over, the mother ship had sunk and the speedboats were racing into the darkness. One was later found abandoned. An unknown number of people died on the mother ship, a navy statement said.
It's not the first success. Last week, Indian navy commandos operating from a warship foiled a pirate attempt to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden. The navy said an armed helicopter with marine commandos prevented the pirates from boarding the Indian merchant vessel.
But pirates appear to be attacking ships at will in the region these days, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Malaysia.
"It's getting out of control," Choong said.
Across the Gulf of Aden, bands of pirates on Tuesday seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.
A multi-coalition naval force has increased patrols in the region, but Choong said "there is no firm deterrent" to the pirate attacks.
"The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high," Choong said.
The pirates used to mainly roam the waters off the coast of Somalia. But now they are targeting ships further out at sea.
Choong said 17 vessels and more than 300 crew members remain in the hands of pirates, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million (U.S.) in crude.
The supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, was anchored Tuesday close to Harardhere, the main pirates' den on the Somali coast, with a load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members.
Asked about reports that a ransom had been demanded, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the owners of the tanker "are negotiating on the issue."
Pirates have generally released ships after ransoms were paid.
© Copyright 2008, The Associated Press
