Posted on 04/11/2008 12:28:17 PM PDT by Eurotwit
PARIS (Reuters) - French commandos seized six pirates in Somalia on Friday during a daring helicopter raid launched shortly after the bandits had released the 30-strong crew of a luxury yacht hijacked last week.
French officials said the owners of the yacht paid a ransom to obtain the freedom of the crew and as soon as it was clear that they were all safe, the commandos went into action aboard helicopters to track down the pirates.
A district commissioner in Somalia told Reuters that five local people had died in the attack, but the French military denied killing anyone in their daylight raid.
"It was an intervention not a pulverization," General Jean-Louis Georgelin, head of the armed forces general staff told a news conference in Paris.
Georgelin said the French military tracked the pirates, believed to be Somali fishermen, after they made landfall and moved in when they saw some of the gang getting away in a car.
A sniper in one helicopter shot out the car engine while another helicopter dropped off three French soldiers who captured the six pirates and hauled them off to French navy helicopter carrier waiting off the Somali coast.
"It is the first time an act of piracy in this area has been resolved so quickly ... and it is also the first time that some of the pirates have been apprehended," Admiral Edouard Guillard told the news conference.
Georgelin said no public money was paid to free the hostages but he indicated that the ships owner had paid a ransom, part of which was found with the escaping pirates.
"When we captured the pirates we also recovered some interesting bags," he said.
French media reported that $2 million was paid by the owners, but family members who met President Nicolas Sarkozy said they were simply relieved that the hostages were free.
"We don't know how much they paid and really, we don't want to know," Karim Meghoufel, whose brother-in-law was the yacht's chief pastry chef, told reporters at the Elysee Palace.
PARACHUTE MISSION
Around 12 pirates grabbed the three-masted yacht, the Ponant, last Friday, about 850 km out to sea in the Gulf of Aden. They then sailed the boat to the Somali coast, eventually mooring at Garaad, near the town of Eyl.
The French navy sent 2 boats to the area, with 4 or 5 helicopters on board and around 50 commandos. A French admiral was also parachuted into the sea and picked up by the task force to help lead the operation.
The Foreign Ministry said the crew, 22 of whom are French, would be repatriated as soon as possible. Most of the other crew members came from Ukraine and the Philippines.
General Georgelin said President Nicolas Sarkozy made clear he wanted all the hostages released without harm, but added that the military would "probably" have intervened if the pirates had tried to split up the group or taken them off the boat.
French officials said the pirates would be tried in France. They said Paris would also seek much tougher United Nations action against maritime piracy.
Piracy is lucrative off lawless Somalia and most kidnappers treat their captives well in anticipation of a good ransom.
France said it would present new anti-piracy measures to fellow members of the United Nations Security Council next week aimed at toughening the war against sea banditry.
"This phenomenon is increasing, with the pirates becoming ever better equipped and organized," said Jean-David Levitte, Sarkozy's chief diplomatic advisor.
"We are confronted by a real, real threat," he said, adding that over the last 10 years 3,200 sailors had been kidnapped by pirates, 500 injured and 160 killed.
(Additional reporting by Abdiqani Hassan in Somalia and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, editing by Giles Elgood)
“Keyboard warriors” are by definition incapable or disinclined to take action of any kind to put themselves in harm’s way..
However — many of those who have found sufficient deficiencies with the French and French military to ridicule them the past several years before the current leader came on the scene, were fully justified with portfolios as veteran warriors.
Most have face ARMED adversaries a lot more formidable than a collection of Somali “fisherman” as they have been described who added piracy to their vocation....
So I hope you won’t be offended if some of us wait for more information before we applaud the French or stop ridiculing them... On the surface - this DOES look like a positive action by the French...
The history of piracy in the waters off Somalia - should justify the sinking of ANY vessel who penetrates any ship’s security perimeter after being “warned” off by horn, signal or shots...
Will be interested in seeing photos of how badly these pirates damaged this fine ship.
“A district commissioner in Somalia told Reuters that five local people had died in the attack”
So what? Too bad they didn’t nail all the pirates.
The “pirates” should all be shot.
Must have fallen off the boat!
“Well then. Who in the hell was on that yacht that it required parachuting an Admiral no less into the sea so he could oversee the rescue operation ?”
You must have missed it in the article, they freed the Head Pastry Chef. My God one must have their priorities. /s
As I said, good for the French! As well it should be done. But, to quote one of the previous posts, I think the ‘pulverization’ would have been preferable. Or the age old tradition of mast hanging (tho plank would have done just as well).
Ya know THAT is a helluva idea. And I bet it’d be lots of fun too.
Yes, all the Europeans (except maybe the Dutch) can still be brutally ruthless when they get really pi$$ed off. When that day comes, we may see concentration camps there again.
Who wouldn’t sign up to cruise the East Indian ocean for a couple of weeks on a really posh yacht, do some serious gamefishing, and have the chance to expend a couple thousand rounds tearing up a bunch of asshats no one will miss anyway? It’s all in international waters anyway, so unless someone’s navy gets their knickers in a twist, I’d be home-free.
Heck, I could probably sell tickets. I’d be rich.
Every ship making that passage should take on a security crew with rocket launchers and rotate them onto the nearest entering ship soon as they clear dangerous waters. The maritime insurers can do the tally- loss of ship and cargo plus ransom = how many security crews?
All any of this terrorist/piracy cr*p requires is a measure of decisiveness.
Sign me up. I’d be founder and a first customer to boot. That could do with some pretty serious market research. Tho the income and expenses would be easy to figure out... lesseee...
Superyacht - 30M, modified
BOFORS, 40mm, - 10M each, say, two.
Crew, ex-SOCOM, Blackwater or Executive outcomes, 10 guys, 2.5M/yr
Crew, chef, butler, serving staff, 0.5M/yr
Fuel/Ammo/Beer - 0.25M /yr
Finance the whole thing at, say, 8%, first year of operations. 50M capital investment, 8%, 4M interest, crew, expenses and insurance, ~10M annual operating expenses.
Pricelist - 1 week adventure cruise in pirate infested waters, all-inclusive, for one person, 100k. Say 10 passengers, 1.0M/week. 26 weeks a year. Cool 26M annual revenue. That’s about 61% profit margin.
Well done Mr French men.
I'd would have preferred that the yacht came in to harbor with the pirates swinging from the yardarms. GREAT photo op!
I think the bigger problem has been with the French political system and all that that entails. From what I have heard over the years the special units of the French military are quite competent. As far as large scale military capability, maybe not so much, but this was not that.
I’d only change one thing. Rather than one $30-million yacht, I’d do 10 3-million yachts. Each with a BOFORS on the foredeck (suitably camouflaged, of course), and a couple of M-60s with rail mounts for cleanup. I’d rotate them through the area a few at a time, so the pirates wouldn’t be able to figure out who was thinning their numbers.
Figure 2-3 at sea at any given time, so that boosts the fuel costs and the number of crew needed (though not by the full amount, since the smaller yachts won’t need the big crew that the big one does), but increases the number of passengers as well. It also increases the number of pirates that can be dealt with during each sailing. Plus, the costs might even be lower, since it’s likely that I could probably round up a sponsor or two due to the interest that so many have in making that area safe again.
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