De Zeven Provincien
Posted on 04/18/2009 12:44:47 PM PDT by zaphod3000
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a "mother ship" attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said.
In a separate incident, gunmen from Somalia seized a Belgian-registered ship and its 10 crew, including seven Europeans, further south in the Indian Ocean.
SNIP
NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes, speaking on board the Portuguese warship Corte-Real, said the 20 fishermen were rescued after a Dutch navy frigate on a NATO patrol responded to an assault on a Greek-owned tanker by pirates firing assault rifles and grenades.
Commandos from the Dutch ship, the De Zeven Provincien, pursued the pirates, who were on a small skiff, back to their "mother ship," a hijacked Yemeni fishing dhow.
"We have freed the hostages, we have freed the dhow and we have seized the weapons... The pirates did not fight and no gunfire was exchanged," Fernandes told Reuters. The Corte-Real is also on a NATO anti-piracy mission He said the hostages had been held since last week. The commandos briefly detained and questioned the seven gunmen, he told Reuters, but had no legal power to arrest them.
"NATO does not have a detainment policy. The warship must follow its national law," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
De Zeven Provincien
Nice looking Ship
I like it better when our SEALs handle such situations.
I think I can spot the problem here.
That is cool looking.
WTF?
U.S. Navy's "Easter SEALS" handle the pirates much more effectively.
What's up with the "briefly detained"? Does that mean they let them go?
The "being forced to sail a mothership" part stinks, too. I'll bet the Yemenis are just lying muslims saying "oh yeah, they MADE us do it."
These folks will be back at it again soon.
Got a solution... Say they fired at you, shoot them, and dump their bodies on the docks of the pirate port. Do that a few times, the pirate activity will end.
Instead, what this did was cost the pirates a few guns (big deal), and teach them that they can go on with it with near immunity, knowing that if they get caught, they'll just be released to go do it again.
Right. Because all Muslims around the world are one big happy family, in cahoots, exchanging secret handshakes.
I think one of the pirates who tried to hijack the Maersk Alabama thought the same thing. "We're both Muslims, buddy, you can trust me, come down in the dark engine room..."
When fishing for pirates, Catch & Release is crazy.
Did “Ears” have anything to do with this?
No—Dutch operation.
See? They're just misunderstood and it's Whitey's fault anyhow.
Most of Somalia's pirate gangs operate from the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland, where many of them say they first took to the seas to stop illegal fishing by European fleets and the dumping of toxic waste.
"NATO does not have a detainment policy. The warship must follow its national law," he said. "They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters."
"The ship was carrying two Belgian, four Croatian, one Dutch and three Filipino crew members.
Uhh... aren't people from the Netherlands called Dutch?
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