An undated file photo shows the Liberty Sun cargo ship. Pirates attacked the ship off the coast of Somalia with rockets and automatic weapons on April 14, 2009 but failed to board the craft.
Posted on 04/15/2009 4:29:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Somali pirates attacked an American freighter with rockets to “destroy” the ship in revenge for an operation that freed a U.S. captain last weekend, one of their commanders said Wednesday.
The freighter escaped the attack late Tuesday, but more vessels have fallen into the hands of marauding Somali bandits.
“This attack was the first against our prime target,” pirate commander Abdi Garad told AFP of the attack on the Liberty Sun late Tuesday. “We intended to destroy this American-flagged ship and the crew on board but unfortunately they narrowly escaped us.
“The aim of this attack was totally different. We were not after a ransom. We also assigned a team with special equipment to chase and destroy any ship flying the American flag in retaliation for the brutal killing of our friends.”
Pirates have taken four ships since losing two battles with US and French forces at the weekend.
Their latest target was the Liberty Sun which was heading for the Kenyan port of Mombasa with international food aid, the owners said.
The USS Bainbridge, which mounted the operation to rescue the captain of US cargo Maersk Alabama, came to the rescue of the Liberty Sun, officials said.
Crew members gave a dramatic account of the attack.
“We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets,” crewman Thomas Urbik told his mother in email messages, CNN television reported.
“We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. (A) rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out.”
Mr. Urbik said the US Navy escorted the ship to safety. “The navy has showed up we are now under military escort,” he wrote.
Garad said the attack was revenge for the weekend operation that freed Maersk Alabama captain Richard Phillips and killed three pirates.
Mr. Phillips was taken hostage on a lifeboat after his crew managed to overpower pirates who had hijacked the ship.
He was freed in a spectacular Navy Seals operation Sunday which prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to pledge tough action in the fight against piracy.
But pirates were swift to brush off their weekend losses and have attacked four more ships since.
The MV Irene, a 35,000-tonne Greek-operated ship, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. Its 22 Filipino crew are believed to be safe. The NATO naval mission in the area said another ship was seized but its identity remained unclear.
At least 18 ships and close to 300 crew are being held by Somali pirates. Ten of the ships have been taken this month.
Experts predicted that pirate attacks and hijackings in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean would continue at a similar rate for at least another two weeks on the back of calm sea conditions.
“The pirates have really upped the ante lately and we haven’t reached the peak of the calm season yet,” said Nick Davis, a maritime security expert who runs a UK-based private company.
According to sources close to the pirates, French ships were also prime targets following the weekend rescue of the Tanit yacht in which a hostage and two pirates were killed.
Three Somali pirates arrested during the French military rescue operation were taken to France on Tuesday and put in custody.
French commandos had already launched rescue operations in two previous cases over the past year, killing and capturing pirates.
In a statement, top UN envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, backed the operations saying they “are sending a strong message to the pirates and, more importantly, to their backers who are exploiting the poverty and desperation of their young, unemployed compatriots.”
UN International Maritime Bureau (IMB) head Noel Choong said: “We support the robust response against the pirates.” But he added that there are risks involved.
So far Somali pirates have sought to release ships for ransoms and have not killed any hostages. But their attacks have prompted naval powers to deploy ships to patrol pirate-infested waters.
Somalia has gone through close to two decades of war and lawless chaos which have made piracy one of the few viable businesses.
An undated file photo shows the Liberty Sun cargo ship. Pirates attacked the ship off the coast of Somalia with rockets and automatic weapons on April 14, 2009 but failed to board the craft.
God, I’d love to see a few Predator drones blow these guys the #@$% out of the water as soon as they dare to confront a chartered commercial vessel of any kind.
Surprise! sshhhhhhhhhhhKABOOM
God, I’d love to see a few Predator drones blow these guys the #@$% out of the water as soon as they dare to confront a chartered commercial vessel of any kind.
Surprise! sshhhhhhhhhhhKABOOM
I keep waiting for Robert Gates to announce a program where merchant ships can buy, from the nearest US Navy vessel, a deck-mounted machinegun at break-even rates.
It’s an exercise in futility.
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Oh, those wacky Somali youths!
I’d like to see an AC-130 or an Apache go after them. Hell, lets just send everything we have, and tell the military to post it all on youtube!!
It would be one of the greatest days in the history of the internet!
That’s what I was thinking. Several nice Predators and some of those lovely helicopters that shoot rockets would put the fear of God and the United States in them. I also have a fantasy that we quietly arm our ships with big honking cannons, rockets etc and don’t tell anyone. When the pirates cruise up, we blow them out of the water and keep going like nothing happened. Nothing to see here. That scenario, repeated several times, would stop them once and for all. They would not know which ships were armed, and which were not. As you stated so well: Surprise! sshhhhhhhhhhhKABOOM. I think I’ll wander over to Jawa and watch some war porn, make myself feel better.
Sounds to me like the scumbags have issued a declaration of war.
We should treat it as such. Close with and destroy the enemy. In their homes, places of “work”, on the seas, where ever, how ever necessary. End their days. Also, heap punishment and horror upon those who support them, assist them, profit from them.
Kill them. And keep killing them until they have nothing left in themselves but weeping, misery and expectation of violent death.
Leave those who survive with a deep fear and loathing of even the idea of taking up arms against us for generations to come.
That’s the road to peace.
Expect any ship thats flying Old Glory to be treated the same way.
Yutes?
Might be a good time to reconfirm the blast radius of a few MOAB’s.
Anyone know why we didn’t find the pirates and obliterate them for attacking this ship?
What are we waiting for? (rhetorical question because of who the President is)
Why don’t we send the One and an entourage of 500 to negotiate?
We wouldn’t want to give them the impression that we did not
like them and respect their religion.
They’ve done so much to shape our culture,
particularly in Ci-cago.
HOZE-EM!!! 
the fear of God and the United States, I LIKE THE WAY THAT SOUNDS!!!
Even “Wet My Pants” Obama will be forced to respond eventually. This is no longer piracy, but a declaration of war.
LOL!!
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
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