Posted on 08/11/2002 12:18:23 PM PDT by colette_g
There are reports a British-registered tanker has been hijacked off the coast of Somalia.
Reuters news agency said the Somali hijackers were demanding $1m for the release of the Russian crew.
Britain's Foreign Office could not confirm the reports.
Helicopter
A spokesman said the a British frigate had dispatched a helicopter to find the ship, but nothing was seen.
The tanker was hijacked about two weeks ago and its crew taken ashore to a location in Alula district on Somalia's north-eastern coast, the militiaman told Reuters.
"The ship was registered in Britain," one of the militiamen told the agency.
Dangerous waters
He said the ship, which was carrying fuel from Dubai to South Africa, had been moored in a natural harbour about 30 miles away from Alula's main settlement.
One eyewitness said he saw the tanker's captain being held in a house.
Somalia's waters are considered to be among the most dangerous in the world - piracy is relatively common.
Unless I miss my guess here this is a Russian problem and will probably be handled by maritime spetsnaz. Please don't put our troops in every harms way.
Comacchio Company (SBS) of 300 ranks based at RM Condor Arbroath, are responsible for fast reaction for nuclear weapons protection both in transit and on site. Also charged with the oilrig and ship protection duties at sea.
But the SAS will get the credit.
There are also well-connected private security companies such as Executive Outcomes and Sandline that may be engaged in such service even as we speak.
Often these organizations use British ex-SAS/SBS, American ex-SpecOps men, or former Gurkhas. (Nobody scares the Mohammedan cockroaches as much as a Gurkha!)
Here's an interesting story from APB News: Keeping Ships and Cargos Safe From Pirates.
-ccm
I may have misunderstood but I thought the crew had been taken ashore so thought that might make it a SAS operation. I'm sure either one could do the job.
....If Blair has the minerals.
Now your probably laughing thinking I misspelled the name. Nope, that's probably the way they spelled it too. "Hey, we didn't take advantage of those kids. We promised to teach them to paint like Leonardi DeVenci, a house painter from Wisconson."
Just love those con games...
They did that in 1985 when the PLO kidnapped some Soviet Officials and took the Soviet embassy in Beirut hostage (that was when the PLO had been conducting its operations out of Lebanon instead of inside Israel).
The Russians gave the terrorists 48 hours to 'let my people go' and when the deadline arrived and nothing had happened the Spetsgruppa Al'Fa, the counter-terrorism facet of the Russian Spetsnaz special forces, was sent in.
The kidnapped some of the terrorists, then kidnapped some of the families of the terrorists, chopped off their heads, put them in a duffel bag, and sent them to the head guy (no pun intended) with a promise of further 'unrestarined' action. The Soviet officials were released promptly.
Today the Spetsnaz has fallen into relative disaaray due to problems affecting Russian coffers meaning funding is limited. However several groups of the Spetsnaz have been kept at their highest levels of combat efficacy, and one of these is....guess which one: the SpetsGruppa Alfa! And these are the guys who used to practice self defence techniques with prisoners from the Gulag prisons for 'added realism!'
Anyway i do not know what is going to happen in this particular case. I would say a more convenient 'compromise' will be reached and no military involvement will be necessary. However should the worst come to happen , and a mix of British SAS and Russian Spetsgruppa Spetsnaz are sent in, i just hope those pirates have their life insurance in order and have been offering effective prayers since their lives will suddenly be in serious jeopardy!
Seriously, how much worse can it get? All we need to do is throw in our Delta force and the Israeli Sayeret Matkal and this would be a once in a lifetime situation (although a Spetsgruppa Spetsnaz and SAS hookup is a terribly potent combo in itself ...it is actually overkill).
However if the Spets do go in chances are the SAS will at the very least have at least one operative since in modern history at least one SAS operative has been present in every major counterterrorist event, and furthermore this is a British ship.
Feel sorry for the pirates. There is a very good reason that when people attack Russia they ensure that there attacks do not go too 'far.' For example when the Chechnyans planted a 'dirty bomb' devive in Gorky park they immediately phoned the Russian authorities and told them where it was so it could be defused. Had the device detonated chances are the Russians would have decided their fracas with Chechnya was now a nuclear issue and nuked the hell out of them.
I actually wonder what would have happened had al Queda hijacked four Aeroflot planes and crashed them into various locales in and around Moscow? Let's say one hit the Kremlin, one crashed in the countryside, and two crashed into some major commercial building in Moscow. Dare i say certain places in the MiddleEast would be glowing the green glow for a couple of centuries?
Just a thought. Never mess with someone who has nukes, and drinks a lot of prime grade Vodka!
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