Posted on 04/05/2010 7:26:24 AM PDT by traumer
A South Korea-operated, Singapore-owned oil tanker has been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.
The 300,000-tonne Samho Dream - loaded with crude oil - was on its way from Iraq to the United States with 24 crew when it was seized on Sunday.
South Korea has sent a destroyer already in the area to intercept the tanker before it reaches any port.
Pirates targeting ships off the coast of Somalia made tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments last year.
The Cheong-hae destroyer was on patrol in the Gulf of Aden, where pirates have often staged attacks.
It has been diverted some 1,500 km (930 miles) to the south-east to the area where the hijacking took place. In recent months, pirates have been attacking ships further out to sea - in some cases closer to the Indian coast than Somalia.
"The government has dispatched our Cheong-hae naval unit to the waters of the Indian Ocean, where the ship hijacked by Somali pirates is assumed to be," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The ship is presumed to have been hijacked by Somali pirates," the ministry said.
It also expressed concern for the safety of the crew - five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
1-800-CALL-OBAMA begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-CALL-OBAMA end_of_the_skype_highlighting !!
Unfortunately, the South Koreans have set a poor precedent in the past by negotiating and paying off these pirates. The ROK Marines are quite capable of dealing with such nuisances.
We need to just make the Somali coast a DMZ no man’s land.
The pirates thought it was the Sambo Dream and attacked it for racism.
All of our blue water navies of the West are capable but not willing. It would be nice to see the South Koreans set the example by showing no mercy to these Muslims doing jihad on the high seas.
What part of the word, ‘jihad,’ does the West not understand?
At least as recently as Viet Nam, the ROK didn't feel constrained to play by quite the same rules as other Western powers. The VC feared the ROKs, and there are a number of documented instances where the VC would simply abandon previously contested zones when it became known the ROKs would be relieving US forces in the area.
Are these the pirates we just released? Not that we have a catch and release policy, of course.
Really??!?!? Wow! Too bad our military can’t have the same rep as....South Korea.
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