Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Somali Pirates: Iran's Boasts

I'm sure the Iranian navy is doing mostly valiant things in protecting Iranian shipping from Somali pirates, but the official Iranian media needs to ratchet down its enthusiasm a couple of notches.

For example, this release from Fars News Agency, Somali Pirates' Attack Repelled by Iranian Navy:
The Iranian Navy's fleet of warships dispatched to the Gulf of Aden fought back a group of somali pirates who intended to hijack two Iranian trade vessels.

The VALHLH ship was attacked by three pirate boats in the Suez Canal, but was saved thanks to the timely measure taken by the Iranian Navy warships and continued on its way to Bandar Abbas without suffering any loss or dely.

In another incident pirates attacked an Iranian commercial ship, Nabi, with four speedboats but were forced to retreat because of the heavy fire of the Iranian Navy's special operation team.

Nabi had departed Kharg Island for Port of Ain Sukhna (Sokhna) in Egypt.

The Iranian Navy's 13th fleet of warships, comprised of Tonb and Delvar vessels, was deployed to the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden in 2011 in a bid to guard Iranian merchant containers and oil-tankers. (emphasis added)
Taking everything else as true (for the purposes of this post), I suspect that the highlighted alleged attack in the "Suez Canal" probably took place in the the Red Sea or near the entrance to the Red Sea or somewhere else instead of in the canal itself. Probably just an overeager Iranian PAO.

If it occurred where the Iranians say it did, that would be big new. Much bigger than a press release from Fars.

No comments:

Post a Comment