Somali Pirate Fail: "Know Your Enemy"

Surrendering survivors -EUNAVFOR photo

Well, the headline "Spanish Navy Thwarts Pirate Attack in Indian Ocean" doesn't really tell the tale:

Spanish forces have captured six alleged pirates in the Indian Ocean, after the suspects attacked a Spanish navy ship.

Patino

The Spanish defense ministry says pirates aboard a skiff (small boat) opened fire on the combat support ship Patiño early Thursday.

A statement says the navy ship exchanged fire with the pirates, who eventually tried to flee on their boat. A military helicopter caught up with the pirates, who then surrendered.

The ministry says six suspected pirates were taken into custody, five of whom were injured. The detainees said a colleague who was killed during the incident had been thrown overboard.

Hey, riding in a small boat, big ships look very much the same. Still . . .

This  is perhaps the 4th or 5th time this sort of thing has happened. Never turns out well for the pirates.
More here.

Piracy Round Up (23 September 2009)

Australian Navy breaks up a Somali pirate ship hunt, as set out here:

Australian sailors from the warship HMAS Toowoomba have thwarted a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden, boarding a suspect vessel and seizing a cache of military weapons.
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The incident occurred late on Sunday night after Toowoomba, an Anzac class frigate, received an emergency call from the freighter MV BBC Portugal, reporting a boat carrying an armed group was approaching at high speed.
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As Toowoomba sailed at top speed towards BBC Portugal, coalition P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft and a naval helicopter from another coalition warship spotted the suspect vessel.

They confirmed sighting weapons on the vessel and also that the crew had disposed of a number of items overboard, including a ladder.

On reaching the scene, Toowoomba launched her boarding team to investigate.

A search of the vessel revealed a rocket-propelled grenade launcher (RPG), six AK-47 assault rifles, a G-3 assault rifle and a large quantity of ammunition.

UPDATE: There's more to the story than is reported above. Gulf of Aden Group Transits reports that there was a Yemeni Navy team on BBC Portugal and sends along this:

Late afternoon of Sunday 20th of September, a Bulk Carrier reported an approach of a skiff while in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor in the Gulf of Aden. On board of the Bulk Carrier a unit of the Yemeni Navy was embarked. On sighting of these military personnel the skiff abandoned the approach and tried to flee as reported by the merchant vessel to the UK Maritime Trade Organization in Bahrain. UKMTO alerted other merchant vessels and the Counter Piracy Forces on MERCURY, the EU introduced common counter piracy communication system.

Thereupon a Japanese P3 reconnaissance aircraft, already on site, reported position information to other Counter Piracy forces. The Australian warship Toowoomba of CTF 151, closest to the skiff, was assisted by the helicopter of the German EU NAVFOR warship FGS Bremen in stopping the fleeing skiff. On sighting of the helicopter unknown items and a ladder were thrown over the bow of the skiff and all eight persons on the skiff raised their arms awaiting the boarding team of HMAS Toowoomba. During the boarding all piracy related paraphernalia were seized and destroyed. The helicopter of FGS Bremen continued to secure the area from the air.

This is just one example of the excellent coordination and cooperation between the Counter Piracy Task Forces active in the Gulf of Aden. The use of the common communication system MERCURY proved its utility again.

FGS Bremen takes part in the EU NAVFOR mission Operation ATALANTA. The main tasks of Operation ATALANTA are to escort merchant vessels carrying food of the ‘World Food Program’ (WFP), the protection of vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy.

GOAGT adds:

We had placed an armed Yemen Navy team on the vessel and it is they who fired warning shots to the pirates to ward them off whilst we called for coalition assets to assist to which a multinational scenario played out involving the German, Australian and Japanese Navy who all supplied assets to the cause.

However the underlying fact is that the embarked Yemen Navy team thwarted the attack – NOT the Australians.....

(end Update) M/V BBC Portugal Photo Copyright by Ashley Hunn, from Shipspotting.com and is used in accordance with terms set forth therein.

South Korean Navy stops Somali pirates, as set out in Destroyer Rescues 3 Vessels From Pirates Off Somalia:

A Korean naval unit has rescued three foreign vessels from being hijacked by pirates operating off the coast of Yemen as part of a U.S.-led anti-piracy campaign, Yonhap News reported Sunday.

The Dae Jo Yeong, a destroyer with the South Korean naval unit Cheonghae, Sunday rescued three ships registered under Cyprus, the Marshal Islands and the Bahamas from pirates near waters off Yemen at 3:13 p.m. on Saturday, military officials here said.
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The unit, which rescued five Yemeni sailors captured by the pirates the previous day, has so far successfully intervened in nine separate pirate raids.

Naval officials said they released the pirates, who had used a boat registered to Yemen as their mode of transportation, due to the difficulties involved in processing and bringing legal charges against them.

How the international warships off Somalia talk even if they aren't good friends, explained here by StrategyPage:

So the British took the initiative of establishing a "neutral" communications channel for all the warships on anti-piracy patrol. This is a secure Internet based communication system called Mercury. All the ships engaged in counter-piracy operations have access to Mercury. This makes it possible for ships to request information, or cooperation, from other ships, despite whatever currently icy diplomatic conditions may exist between the two nations involved. Thus the Iranian warships can discretely work together with U.S. warships.

Ship attacks rise to 5 year high in South China Sea:

Increased naval patrols in the Straits of Malacca have forced pirates in Asia to move their operations to the South China Sea, where the number of attacks on ships is at a five-year high, an official said Tuesday.

At least 10 ships were attacked in the South China Sea so far this year, the latest on Saturday when six pirates boarded a Singapore-registered liquefied petroleum gas tanker, said Amy Fang of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, or ReCAAP.

The attackers assaulted the duty officer and robbed the ship's crew, Fang said.

She said it was "worrying" that 10 attacks have taken place with more than three months still to go this year, compared to nine attacks in 2005 in South China Sea.

"The pirates seem to have more heavy weapons" than before, and are attacking ships rather than just threaten the crew, Fang told The Associated Press from the Singapore base of ReCAAP, an information-sharing group sponsored by 17 countries in the region to fight piracy.

One such attack, reported by ReCAAP (arrow points to general area of attack):

Somali Pirates: EU Safely Escorts Food Ship but ...

Press release from here:

Successfull escort by German Navy frigate

Muqdisho, Somalia, 26th of June 2009

14.000 tons of food have been delivered successfully to the starving people of Somalia from Mombasa, Kenya to Moqdisho in order to prevent the predicted famine in Somalia.

The humanitarian aid shipping, conducted by the merchant ship JAIPUR, was arranged by order and for account of the World Food Programme of the United Nations.

During the several day lasting journey the vessel was escorted by the European Union Naval Force warship FGS Rheinland-Pfalz, a German Navy frigate. This frigate is operating off the coasts of Somalia since February this year and is part of the EU led Operation Atalanta.

This shouldn't really be a story except that the Somali pirates have no sense of obligation to their fellow Somalis and will intercept unescorted food ships.

On the other hand, the UN ReliefWeb reports that new fighting in Mogadishu is creating even more refugees and strain on the UN systems - since Somalia is too fragmented to help itself (and has been that way for what. 20+ years?):

The UN refugee agency on Friday said it was "gravely concerned" about spiralling violence and the worsening displacement crisis in Somalia, where almost 170,000 people have fled the capital Mogadishu since a fresh wave of fighting erupted in early May.

"Fighting between government forces and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam, which erupted on May 7 in several north-west areas of the Somali capital Mogadishu, is leaving a trail of civilian casualties, destruction and renewed displacement," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

According to records of local Somali hospitals, more than 250 civilians have been killed and at least 900 wounded during this period. "We estimate that since the start of the fighting in May more than 169,000 people have been forced to leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere within Somalia or in neighbouring countries," Spindler said. Between last Friday and Monday alone, an estimated 33,000 were displaced from Mogadishu due to the heavy fighting.

The majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs), some 51,000, moved to safer districts within the city or makeshift IDP settlements on the outskirts of Mogadishu, while another 48,000 fled towards the Afgooye corridor to the west of the capital. They joined more than 400,000 civilians who have been displaced since 2007. A further 70,000 have gone to more distant locations, including the districts of Lower and Middle Shebelle, Lower Juba, Galgaduud, and Gedo.

The UN Relief people spend a lot of time being "gravely concerned" about Somalia.

Somali Pirates: Hijack Ship Out of Convoy

As noted in the comments to this post noting the success of EU convoys, Somali pirates have now taken a ship out of a convoy Somali Pirates Hijack German-Owned Cargo Ship, Crew:

A German-owned ship with 11 crew was seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, the owners and the European Union’s naval force said.

The MV Victoria, which flies the flag of Antigua and Barbuda and is owned by Haren, Germany-based Intersee Group, was taken yesterday afternoon about 120 nautical miles north of the Somali port of Boosaaso, the EU’s anti-piracy naval mission said in a statement. The ship was traveling in a convoy, and a helicopter from the nearest warship arrived too late to prevent the attack, the EU said.

Here's the entirety of the comment left on yesterday's post:

German bulk carrier hijacked in the Gulf of Aden 05/05/2009 18.46 GMT A German owned and German managed bulk carrier this afternoon was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in a position approximately 120 nautical miles north of Boosaaso in Somalia (1322N 04923E). The vessel, carrying a load of 10.000 tons of rice, was sailing in the transit corridor and was picked out of a group transit within only a few minutes. A helicopter from the closest warship was too late to prevent the ship from being hijacked. The crew of 11 sailors is believed to be unhurt.

05/05/2009 11.27 GMT Pirate Attack Somali Basin (02 38S,053 49E) Two skiffs chased a vehicle carrier underway and attempted to board her several times. Vessel made evasive manoeuvres and escaped from the pirates. The skiffs aborted the attempt.

All vessels are advised to remain vigilant. It is recommended that all vessels not making scheduled calls to ports in Somalia, Kenya or Tanzania keep as far from the Somali coast as possible. MSCHOA now advise that vessels should consider maintaining a distance of more than 600 nautical miles from the coastline and when routing north/south consider keeping East of 60E Longitude until East of the Seychelles. All vessels transiting the area and not able to keep 600 nm off the Somali coast are advised not to approach closer than 100 nm from the position given in this report and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously.

While navigating in the region vessels are urged to operate at a heightened state of readiness, maintaining strict 24 hour anti-piracy visual and radar watches, actively implement recommended anti-piracy measures and regularly report their position/course/speed to UKMTO.
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05/05/2009 06.03 GMT Pirate Attack Gulf of Aden (13 09 N ,049 08 E) ---WARNING WARNING WARNING--- At 0438 UTC a merchant vessel is currently under attack by [pirates/x skiffs] in position 13 09 N 049 08 E. At least two skiffs. Attack is still ongoing. While navigating in the region vessels are urged to operate at a heightened state of readiness, maintaining strict 24 hour anti-piracy visual and radar watches, actively implement recommended anti-piracy measures and regularly report their position/course/speed to UKMTO. Merchant vessels are requested to report any suspicious activity to UKMTO Dubai (+97 1505523215 –ukmto@eim.ae) or IMB PRC (+60 320310014 – imbkl@icc-ccs.org / piracy@icc-ccs.org). Reports can also be relayed to MSCHOA (opscentre@mschoa.org). BABU | 05.05.09 - 8:55 pm | #

All of which tends to support the idea that convoys work - most of the time - but there is still a "golden 15 minutes" in which help must arrive and which are critical to an attack being thwarted or not.

In addition to the warning from the EU, in an email from the Gulf of Aden Group Transits organization:

. . . ship owners need to have heightened awareness between now and the end of the month – in June the SW monsoon winds will come in and they will more or less will stop the piracy until August when I think it will come back with horrendous force and with much better equipped and trained young men

The amount of attacks at night between the now and the end of the month will considerably increase along with dawn attacks.

That pattern is consistent with that noted in my earlier post Winds off Somalia which linked to some UN graphs on pirate attack trends off Somalia:







GOAGT also suggests that shipping move closer to the Yemeni coast. It is my understanding that this previously caused difficulty in transits interfering with legitimate fishing craft and made de-conflicting convoy operations harder.

UPDATE: There is some suggestion that the hijacking took place while the helicopter was being refueled, thus delaying its take off to counter the pirates. . .