Posted on 10/29/2007 8:16:36 AM PDT by blam
Japanese ship hijacked in Africa
Pirates have hijacked a Japanese ship off the East African coast - the latest in a series of similar incidents near the war-torn country of Somalia.
The vessel, thought to be a tanker with a crew of Burmese, Philippine and South Korean sailors, was seized in the Gulf of Aden early on Sunday.
Officials say they are trying to find out what the pirates' demands are.
The area is notorious for piracy - of 16 reported hijackings worldwide this year, 11 were off the Somali coast.
Lawless waters
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said they received a distress call from the vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
"We tried to contact the vessel, but there was absolutely no contact," the IMB's Cyrus Mody told BBC News.
He said coalition forces in the area were contacted, and they confirmed the ship had been taken into Somali territorial waters.
There are thought to be 23 crew members on board the vessel, none of whom is Japanese.
The incident comes two weeks after a cargo ship was hijacked on its way to Mombasa in Kenya.
The IMB said there was still no information on the safety of the crew.
Analysts say Somali waters are increasingly lawless, and merchant ships are advised to stay 200 miles from its shores.
The IMB rates Somalia as the second most high risk country for piracy in the world, after Indonesia.
An informative website
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/pirates.htm
WOOHOO! Go Navy! America’s finest! Thanks for the link, null and void.
The pirate "ships" are mainly speedboats that they use to get boarding parties onto the ships. One 250-lbs JDAM would turn one into splinters
The Predator B (the new, larger version of the old Predator) can carry 3,000 pounds of ordinance, plus 3,000 pounds of fuel, giving it a loiter time of 32 hours at 50K feet altitude. I would guess you could put a pair of 1300 lbs harpoons on one and stay within the weight limits, but I'm thinking you would need to redesign the hardpoints on the wing
Thanks again for the information
You’re welcome.
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