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Somali pirates take a ship full of T-72 tanks


ChrisND

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Hi guys, here's a fairly fresh update, note that there is a report APCs and munitions were aboard. The final customer sweepestakes seem to include (so far) the Kenyan government and "South Sudan". So all in all a somewhat fishy transaction, it seems - assuming it really was pirates and not some ueber-secret elite movie cool big nation special forces masquerading as pirates.

Somali pirates seize ship carrying tanks =

Nairobi/Kiev (dpa) - Pirates have seized a Ukrainian cargo ship

carrying military tanks off the coast of Somalia, a maritime official

said Friday.

"The ship was grabbed yesterday evening as it sailed to (the

Kenyan port of) Mombasa," Andrew Mwangura of the East African

Seafarers‘ Assistance Programme told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"It was carrying military equipment, including tanks," he added.

The Russian Interfax news agency late Thursday reported that the

Belize-flagged vessel was carrying a shipment of 30 T-72 tanks,

armoured personnel carriers and munitions.

The shipment reportedly was en-route to South Sudan.

A total 21 crew members were onboard - 17 Ukrainians, 3 Russians

and one Latvian - when the ship was chased down and boarded by armed

men in three launches.

The ship‘s captain, a Ukrainian, was able to telephone a

merchant marine call centre and describe the pirates boarding his

vessel, before communications were cut off, Ukraine‘s News24

television reported.

Ukraine‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the count of

captured sailors, but declined to give information of the actual

destination or cargo contents of the freighter.

The bulk carrier, named Faina, also had aboard an undetermined

number of armoured personnel carriers, and munitions, Ukraine‘s

Interfax news agency reported.

Somali authorities were unable to give any information on the

current whereabouts of the ship.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday called an

emergency meeting of the country‘s National Security Council to

discuss means of locating and freeing the sailors.

Ukraine, which lacks diplomatic representation in the region would

be working through British government intermediaries, an official at

Ukraine‘s Foreign Ministry said.

Piracy is rife off the Somali coast, with armed groups now

holding over a dozen ships and around 200 crew members captive.

The pirates often demand ransoms in excess of 1 million dollars

for the return of the vessels and their crews.

Observers have expressed concern that some of the pirates have

links to the ongoing bloody insurgency in the Horn of Africa nation

and are helping fund it through piracy.

Somalia‘s transitional federal government, which has no

significant navy and is embroiled in combating the insurgency, has

been unable to control the pirates

The United Nations Security Council in June approved incursions

into Somali waters to combat the pirates and the US Naval Central

Command recently set up a security patrol in the area.

However, the measures appear to have had little effect so far.

dpa ml sbk jbl

261106 GMT Sep 08

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The ship will probly be shadowed by sub. The pirates will take any cargo that is liftable. The tanks are probly of no use to them. The crew will be ransomed and the ship will be disabled or possibly scuttled. Or it is SF guys who don't want the tanks to go somewhere.

Maybe the sellers of said T-72's have the cash and now want the goods back to sell again.

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I saw that on the news last night and had much the same reaction you all did.

Back in 2001 the US Army was purchasing T-72s, battle ready with ERA, for $250,000 each. These were probably older ones that had been upgraded, but maintained "motor pool ready". A likely source for them was the Czech Republic who was selling off a large amount of their Cold War vehicles. I know, because I really, really wanted one :D I think the Plain Jane T-72s they had were under $100k. They even sold a couple of SU-100s!!

Steve

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The pirates don't exactly take the cargo only - they take the WHOLE SHIP. Somalian coast is the modern version of the Pirates of the Carribean, but this time with modern super-fast speedboats, RPG rocket launchers, and GPS systems. I doubt that any sub or military vessel was shadowing the captured ship either - the only navy willing to get involved in combatting piracy off the coast of Somalia have been French, and they are terribly overstreched with one military base in the area, and have been calling for help for years. Noone wants to get involved, because solving a problem at sea involves solving the problem on land in Somalia. And the problem is getting more and more serious with 80 ship hijackings just in August - certain port cities in Somalia are literally converted into heavily defended pirate towns where they tow captured vessels to wait for ransom.

So, no special forces, submarines or other developments like that - that stuff only happens in the movies. This was a straight hijacking in a place where 3 vessels a day get attacked.

From what I've read from Ukranian sources tanks were valued at around 800,000-1 mil each. Ransom is posted at 35 million, however it is unclear whether tanks are included in it.

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The pirates don't exactly take the cargo only - they take the WHOLE SHIP. Somalian coast is the modern version of the Pirates of the Carribean, but this time with modern super-fast speedboats, RPG rocket launchers, and GPS systems. I doubt that any sub or military vessel was shadowing the captured ship either - the only navy willing to get involved in combatting piracy off the coast of Somalia have been French, and they are terribly overstreched with one military base in the area, and have been calling for help for years. Noone wants to get involved, because solving a problem at sea involves solving the problem on land in Somalia. And the problem is getting more and more serious with 80 ship hijackings just in August - certain port cities in Somalia are literally converted into heavily defended pirate towns where they tow captured vessels to wait for ransom.

So, no special forces, submarines or other developments like that - that stuff only happens in the movies. This was a straight hijacking in a place where 3 vessels a day get attacked.

From what I've read from Ukranian sources tanks were valued at around 800,000-1 mil each. Ransom is posted at 35 million, however it is unclear whether tanks are included in it.

Actually to say that stuff only happens in the movies isn't actually true. I sailed on FFG??(I have to keep some of what we did secret, I am sure that's what my clearance stated..hehe) for four years. We had Seals on board and we tracked cargo ships throughout the west coast of South America. We boarded those ships all of the time. Nothing fantastic about that. And you don't believe we are tracking that ship off the coast of Somalia? Why shadow with a sub, our satellites do a much better job. Trust me, the news doesn't have to tell you the truth, it's just that we like to believe it because it is the primary source of info for those of you not screening top secret messages coming across teletypes and military communications.

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So, no special forces, submarines or other developments like that - that stuff only happens in the movies.

And yet...the article states

France, which has troops in nearby Djibouti and also participates in a multi-national naval

force patrol in the area, has intervened twice to release French sailors kidnapped by pirates.

Commandos freed two people whose boat was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month

and in April, six arrested pirates were handed over to the French authorities for trial.

I doubt that any sub or military vessel was shadowing the captured ship either

The USS Howard is there doing just that.

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