Private guards repel pirate attack off Somalia, kill one!
A suspected pirate has been shot dead as private guards repelled an attack on a cargo ship off Somalia, in what may have been the first such incident. Guards aboard the Panamanian-flagged MV Almezaan returned fire after the ship was attacked – the third time in a year that pirates had targeted the ship.
The EU naval force (Navfor) said a team from an EU warship found the dead man after responding to a distress call. Six other suspected pirates were detained by a Spanish Navfor ship…
The ESPS Navarra found one pirate mother ship and two skiffs. The mother ship was destroyed after the suspects were taken into custody, Navfor said.
Bullet-holes were found in the skiffs in which they were found, he added…
The Navarra received a distress signal early on Tuesday from a merchant ship off the Somali coast and sped to the area, Navfor said in a statement…
Pirates had launched an attack on the MV Almezaan. This was successfully repelled by members of an “armed private vessel protection detachment” on board the ship, who returned fire.
A second attack was also repelled and the pirates fled the area, Navfor said.
A helicopter from the Navarra sighted the suspected pirates’ boats and ordered them to stop, firing warning shots when they refused to do so. When a team from the Navarra boarded the vessels, they found three suspected pirates in one skiff and three in the second, along with the body of a fourth man…
Somalia has not had a functioning government for nearly two decades and analysts believe that attacks on shipping will continue as long as there is no central government capable of taking on the pirate gangs.
Bravo! One less to worry about.
