Ever heard of Korean Marines?
Posted on 01/21/2011 6:03:20 AM PST by nuconvert
SEOUL (AFP) – South Korean navy commandos Friday stormed a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all the 21 crew and killing eight pirates, military officials said.
The SEAL special forces boarded the South Korean ship before dawn, freeing all the hostages and killing the pirates in cabin-to-cabin battles, they said. Five other pirates were captured.
"This operation demonstrated our government's strong will that we won't tolerate illegal activities by pirates any more," Lieutenant-General Lee Sung-Ho of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a news briefing.
The South Korean skipper of the chemical freighter suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach during the raid but his condition is not life-threatening, the military said. No commandos were hurt.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The SEAL special forces boarded the South Korean ship before dawn, freeing all the hostages and killing the pirates in cabin-to-cabin battles, they said. Five other pirates were captured.
The only thing that can make this story better is if it continued with: "The captured pirates were summarily executed, bringing the total number of dead pirates to 13."
How uncivil.
ROK On!
Way to go, South Korea.
Not to criticize, but it would have been better if all of the pirates were dead.
Has any ever watched the South Korean series IRIS? awesome show. I was reminded of that show when reading this article.
"SEAL" is simply an acronym for "Sea, Air, Land" special forces. In as much as the ROKs generally try to mirror US forces in organization, equipment and training, I don't think their use of the term is inappropriate. There are ROK Ranger, too, BTW, although where our Army only has one Ranger School, each ROK infantry division runs its own.
From what I have heard, the nastiest bunch to cross are Korean military. The Somalis should have asked to be turned over to the Russians.
Sounds like they did an excellent job.
Well I’m glad that it wasn’t the Israeli special forces. Otherwise the media would come out on the side of the poor victimized pirates.
LOL. Praise their work not the childish use of a name.
Thank you, ROK SEALs, for exemplifying to the world the proper treatment of pirates.
Damn straight! It is about time somebody on our side took those rat ba$yards out!!!
MFO
The Koreans don’t have to be “encouraged” to get out of the helicopter. They go willingly.
Why did they bother to capture the five? I hope they at least parade them on TV and send videos to Somalia. Better would be a raid followup destruction of the pirate ports.
One of the most decidedly un-healthy things you could ever do is tell a member of the ROK military that they're 'childishly' using that designation. I assure you that you would experience the ass-kicking of a lifetime.
L
Well, it was South Korean. I don’t quite expect the media to be all that supportive of them either :p
I prefer the Russian Human Rights tactic of releasing the captured pirates.
"We will not tolerate any activities that threaten the safety and lives of our people," he said.
Must be nice to have a President who is a patriot ...
The term childish was to the poster thinking the word seal was some great internationally protected word. I would bet the first korean seals were trained in the good old USA.
The ROKS were the most feared in Vietnam. Even our guys were uneasy around them.
They should have fed the 5 pirates they captured to the sharks and sending the video to Al Jareera.
Every Korean soldier is given extensive training in Taekwondo. Its really then just a question of how much they practice and how much pain they want to endure to become really good. The Korean SEALS are no doubt expert in it.
It’s about time somebody had some guts. Our military could do that too, if we didn’t have such spineless politician’s.
In the movie “The Expendables” (fantastic!), they really should’ve let Dolph Lungren hang the pirate.
Man, he was great in that movie.
Or the British Marines, who predate all others.
ROK (SK) commandos and SK rock.
Does South Korea have a whining, pantywaiste media that will question the severity of it all?
I think the five captured should be sent to some reducation camps, in SK and be severely talked to, wink, wink, nudge, nudge......
The media enables this too including all of TV.
As long as they can board a ship at sea, kill every single pirate, save every single hostage,,, they can call themselves any name they like. Go ROK
Make him watch his cohorts being fed to pigs first.
I prefer the Russian Human Rights tactic of releasing the captured pirates.
—
The Russians have two variations on that theme:
1. Release in unpowered boat at 360 NM
2. Heavy weapons fire.
Yes, I know it’s an acronym. I guess it just took me a bit by surprise.
Thanks
A lot of those guys lost parents and siblings to the Communists in the Korean War.
As a result, many of them took the opportunity to fight Communists in Vietnam extremely personally. They weren't there just to win, they were there to exact revenge for their loved ones.
Way to go, South Korea!
The world needs more pirate beat-downs, and less pirates.
The ancient Athenians had marines on their boats. Probably some even earlier than them had marines.
Good point.
The South Koreans are on to something. They could do this for other countries.....for a price.
It would be great if a coalition could be formed and then send them on the offensive against the pirates.
Really? No argument that White Horse was the safest area (ROK controlled) in Nam - but allied troops "uneasy"? Not my experience. Nam - 66 - 70.
Should of read on “In one of the most controversial rescues, Russian marines freed 23 crew barricaded on board a Russian tanker, the Moscow University. The pirates were later found dead and adrift in a small boat.”
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