Tag: Indian Ocean

The warship smashed the actions of three pirate groups HMS Westminster smashed the actions of three pirate groups in a fortnight - sending the boats to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. The Portsmouth-based warship treated the skiffs to a Viking funeral, blasting them out of the water with her guns and those of her Merlin helicopter.With orange-red flames billowing up in a gigantic mushroom and black smoke drifting across the Indian Ocean, this is one of three pirate action groups whose nefarious activities were brought to a halt in a fortnight by HMS Westminster.In each case, the Portsmouth-based warship pounced after the pirates had tried - but failed - to hijack merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean.As the ship sprinted to the scene her Merlin was sent aloft; when they located the action groups, the helicopters crew invariably found the small craft crammed with weapons, extra fuel, ladders and more people than you would expect to find for any other purpose - hundreds of miles from land.The sight of the Merlin, with Royal Marines Commando snipers in the back, and 5,000 tonnes of armed-to-the-teeth battleship grey bearing down on them, the suspects began ditching their pirate paraphernalia over the ...

India and the EU cooperate to tackle piracy India and the EU will be working together to help tackle a problem that has dealt severe harm to international shippingThe worst affected areas lie off the coast of Somalia, Yemen, the Singapore Strait and Indonesia," explains the EU's new ambassador to India, Joao Cravinho.In 2011, according to International Maritime Bureau figures, there were 439 verified attacks on merchant vessels worldwide, of which 237 involved Somali pirates. Twenty-eight of the 45 hijackings happened off the Somali coast.Piracy has had a profound impact on the international shipping industry. Nagesh Rao, a senior Indian Shipping Ministry official, said shipping companies are being forced to take out war insurance to guard against the risk. Alarmed over the prospect of hijacking, their crews are demanding huge compensation.Rao said shipping lines based in the EU, South Korea and Japan have been requesting help from India in securing their ships. To date no Indian merchant vessel has been attacked, but Indian seamen have been kidnapped and freed only after ransoms were paid by their EU employers.According to Cravinho, the problem has made it increasingly harder for European shipping companies - already reeling from losses caused by the global ...

By the Spanish Warship Reina Sofia - Update On Saturday 14 April Spanish warship ESPS Reina Sofia, who is now operating as part of the EU's counter-piracy mission, Operation Atalanta, stopped a Yemeni dhow that was suspected of carrying armed Somali pirates. The French Air Force Awacs E3F, FS Dixmude and her helicopters, as well as an Australian Maritime Patrol and Reconnaisance Aircraft (MPRA) contributed to this operation. As a result they were able to successfully release 4 innocent Somali crewmen who were being held as hostages onboard.Spanish Marines boarded the dhow that was believed to have been used as a mother ship and related to several pirate attacks in the area. After transferring the 20 men from the dhow to Reina Sofia, four of the men were quickly identified as innocent Somali crewmembers and they are now being cared for by the Spanish crew. Two Yemeni crew had reportedly already been let go by the suspect pirates after the dhow was pirated in late March.As a result of her actions, Reina Sofia took out the threat of 16 pirates and their use of the dhow as a mother ship to attack merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean. The dhow ...

l Spanish warship ESPS Reina Sofia On Saturday 14 April Spanish warship ESPS Reina Sofia, who is now operating as part of the EU's counter-piracy mission, Operation Atalanta, stopped a Yemeni dhow that was suspected of carrying armed Somali pirates. The French Air Force Awacs E3F, FS Dixmude and her helicopters, as well as an Australian Maritime Patrol and Reconnaisance Aircraft (MPRA) contributed to this operation. As a result they were able to successfully release 4 innocent Somali crewmen who were being held as hostages onboard.Spanish Marines boarded the dhow that was believed to have been used as a mother ship and related to several pirate attacks in the area. After transferring the 20 men from the dhow to Reina Sofia, four of the men were quickly identified as innocent Somali crewmembers and they are now being cared for by the Spanish crew. Two Yemeni crew had reportedly already been let go by the suspect pirates after the dhow was pirated in late March.As a result of her actions, Reina Sofia took out the threat of 16 pirates and their use of the dhow as a mother ship to attack merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean. The dhow and the ...

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warns A tsunami watch declared after two major earthquakes off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province has now been cancelled, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PWTC) says.Two hours after the quakes - one with a magnitude of 8.6, the other measuring 8.3 - the centre says "the threat has diminished or is over for most areas".The alerts caused panic as people fled buildings and made for high ground.There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties.India, Thailand and Sri Lanka have also lifted their own tsunami warnings.The region is regularly hit by earthquakes. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 killed 170,000 people in Aceh alone and some 250,000 around the region.The US Geological Survey (USGS), which documents quakes worldwide, said the first Aceh quake was centred at a depth of 33km (20 miles), about 495km from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.It was initially reported as 8.9 magnitude but was later revised down to 8.6 by the USGS. Quake officials said a tsunami had been generated and was heading for the coast of Aceh.The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says there were reports of the ground shaking for up to five minutes.A PTWC alert said that ...

The government is trying to combat the problem from multiple fronts A video clip circulating on the Internet shows a Russian crew rescuing their ship from Somalian pirates and then blowing up the pirates and their ship.Maritime analysts may privately approve of this, invoking an 18th century law that empowers the rescuing ship's captain to deal with the pirates. But is tit-for-tat the solution?Governments know the pirates can retaliate. This fear factor favours the pirates. This explains how a most impoverished nation challenges the might of everyone whose ships sail through the busy sea lane along the Horn of Africa.From just a dozen incidents in 2004, the waters of the Gulf of Aden have seen rapid spiralling of acts of piracy and hijacking. Between 2009 and last year, there were nearly 400 attacks, nearly one-third being successful.If Malacca was notorious some years ago, and although threat of piracy returning to that region cannot be minimised, the current flavour is the Horn of Africa through which pass half the world's containerised freight, a third of the bulk cargo and two-thirds of oil shipments.Piracy can be attributed to the political vacuum created by strife in Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, fishing by foreign ...

The British Royal Navy captured 13 Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean The British Royal Navy captured 13 Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on Friday, Defence Ministry said.A British Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) supply ship and a US Navy vessel intercepted the pirates' boat, which refused to stop despite warning shots fired from a British helicopter.The British navy then sent commandos to board the boat, capturing the 13 pirates and seizing their weapons.Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the British troops, part of a NATO-led counter-piracy force, could be "proud" of the success.Captain Gerry Northwood, who leads the operation, said the capture will "send a clear message to other Somali pirates that we will not tolerate their attacks on international shipping."Earlier this week, the same British ship, RFA Fort Victoria, foiled an attempt by Somali pirates to attack cargo ships in the Indian Ocean, the Defence Ministry added.In the operation on Tuesday, the British navy blocked the pirates' attempt to sail the hijacked tanker Liquid Velvet from the Somali coast into the Gulf of Aden where they would have used it as a mother ship to attack passing ships.Fort Victoria "cut off Liquid Velvet's progress after she had sailed 90 ...

Six pirates have been taken on board the Patino, of which five are injured, ministry says A Spanish navy ship fought off a gun attack by pirates on the Somali coast Thursday, then chased and captured six of the attackers while one was reported killed, authorities said.The support-and-combat vessel Patino, part of a European Union security mission, early Thursday "suffered an attack by a pirate skiff that led to the detention of six of the attackers," the Spanish defence ministry said.The pirates opened fire on the Spanish ship, prompting it to respond with "light fire," the ministry said in a statement. When the pirates continued shooting, the ship responded with "neutralisation fire in self-defence".The ship eventually sent out a helicopter to chase the pirates. The pirates threw their weapons overboard and surrendered when the helicopter caught up with their boat."Six pirates have been taken on board the Patino, of which five are injured," the ministry said. "Those detained said that another companion died in the incident and was thrown by them into the sea."The Patino operates under the EU's Operation Atalanta, a multinational mission to protect ships in the perilous shipping route off the coast of Somalia, where hundreds of ...

The Indian Ocean is strategic area - 85% of China's oil imports and 60% of its exports are routed Little by little China is forming military links in Africa and in the Indian Ocean in order, experts say, to protect Beijing's economic interests in the region.In the past three weeks Beijing has committed to supporting Ugandan forces operating in Somalia and to helping the Seychelles fight piracy."It is very clear that the Chinese leaders recognize that military force will play a bigger role to safeguard China's overseas interests," Jonathan Holslag, of the Brussels Institute of Chinese Contemporary Studies told AFP."There is a willingness, and even a consensus, in China, that this process will take place."The Indian Ocean is strategic, Holslag said, noting that 85 percent of China's oil imports and 60 percent of its exports are routed via the Gulf of Aden.Beijing does not so far have any military base in the region: its military presence consists of three vessels in the Gulf of Aden to fight Somali pirates.But the deployment of those ships in 2009, the first of its kind for the Chinese navy, was already highly symbolic.For the moment, cooperation between China and the islands of the Indian ...

Somali pirates began to make their presence felt in about 2008 Several times in recent years BD PHELAN has left his home in Cork to work as a maritime security contractor in the Indian Ocean, where he and his fellow crew members live under threat of pirate attacksIT'S 11PM, and Mike, Rene and I are in a small motor launch 20 miles off the Sri Lankan coast. We have a further half-hour's journey before we take on the most dangerous part of the anti-piracy operation for which we've been contracted.I had met Mike, a former royal marine, for the first time at Heathrow airport that morning, and we'd flown together to Dubai airport. There we had met Rene, a former French marine and our team leader. The three of us had then flown on to Colombo, from where we were driven for five hours in a minibus to Galle, on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka.We are all self-employed security contractors and have been hired by a Kenya-based company to provide cover for a gas tanker while it makes a voyage from southern India to the Persian Gulf and back.I have been a soldier, a university student, a teacher and ...