Somali Pirates Blitz LiberianTanker

Somali pirates seized control of a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Friday and a NATO helicopter gunship, too late to prevent the hijacking, picked up three security guards who jumped into the sea.

Both France and Germany, which have ships in the area as part of an international anti-piracy coalition, sent the aircraft after receiving a distress call just after dawn, French military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said. But in the 15 minutes it took to get to the site, the pirates had already boarded and had taken the crew of 25 Indians and two Bangladeshis hostage.

The two British guards who leapt overboard with their Irish colleague were safe onboard a French warship, he said.

Germany and France have ships in the area as part of a NATO fleet which, along with warships from Denmark, India, Malaysia, Russia and the U.S., have started patrolling the vast maritime corridor.

They escort some merchant ships and respond to distress calls in the fight against increasingly brazen pirate attacks off Somalia's coast, a major international shipping lane through which about 20 tankers sail daily. Friday's was the 97th ship hijacking this year.

One of the hijacked ships, the Malta-flagged cargo ship Centauri, was released Thursday with all 25 Filipino crew unharmed after more than two months in the hands of pirates, Greece announced.

The ship hijacked Friday, the Liberian-flagged MV Biscaglia, is operated out of Singapore, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The pirates are growing bolder. Hugh Martin, manager of Hart Security, said 20 speedboats filled with pirates launched a simultaneous attack on two slow-moving companion vessels off the south coast of Yemen on Thursday. Hart staff onboard both ships were armed, but managed to use evasive maneuvers and non-lethal methods to prevent the pirates from boarding during the four hour attack.

On Friday, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was possible the U.N. might pass a new resolution with more aggressive rules of engagement.

"Even harsher sanctions, harsher measures, harsher calls to the international community may be passed," he told Russian TV channel Vesti-24. "It would give the possibility for more energetic actions by the naval forces of those countries, including Russia, that have dispatched their ships (to Somalia) for the fight against piracy."

The U.S. navy says it is impossible to patrol all 2.5 million miles of dangerous waters. It has called on ship owners to hire private security contractors to protect vulnerable vessels, leading to a boom in business some contractors fear will encourage unlicensed or inexperienced companies to cash in.

Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, which employs the three guards who leapt off the Biscaglia on Friday, says on its Web site that it was formed in July 2008 and all its staff are ex-Royal Marines. They do not carry weapons.

Many companies prefer non-lethal methods of deterring pirates, including evasive maneuvers, electrifying handrails and the use of sonic weapons that can blast a wave of painful sound up to half a miles away.

Cyrus Mody, head of the International Maritime Bureau, said the onus should be on international navies and not individual ship owners to ensure their vessels' protection. He said the governments whose navies patrol the Gulf of Aden must strengthen their rules of engagement and put a legal framework in place to try suspected pirates.

"You don't have to blow them out of the water, just confiscate the weapons and the ship," he said. Navies needed to patrol more aggressively, boarding and searching suspected "mother ships" from which pirates launched their small fast attack boats, Mody said. Navies now are reluctant to search or detain suspected pirates because their legal standing is unclear, he said.

Somalia, an impoverished Horn of Africa nation, has not had a functioning government since 1991 and it cannot police its long coastline.

Greek Ship Released
A cargo ship seized by Somali pirates more than two months ago has been released with all 25 crew members unharmed, Greek authorities said Friday.

The Merchant Marine Ministry said the Malta-flagged cargo ship Centauri was released Thursday but gave no other details.

The Greek-owned vessel was carrying salt when it was seized on Sept. 18 as it was sailing from Ethiopia to a Kenyan port.

The ministry said all 25 crew members were from the Philippines. The vessel is owned by Athens-based operator Navigation Maritime, ministry officials said.

Guyanese Pirates Killed
Three suspected pirates and a policeman died Friday in a shootout in Guyana as the South American country struggles against piracy at sea, according to authorities.

The three dead suspects were likely part of a gang accused of raiding fishing boats between Guyana and neighboring Suriname, police spokesman Ivelaw Whitaker said. They fired upon authorities who arrived in Corentyne to investigate piracy complaints, he said.

Whitaker said one of the suspects killed was a former army officer recently charged with stealing guns.

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard rescued five fishermen attacked by pirates who seized their vessel and set them adrift in a small boat. It is unclear whether that attack was perpetrated by the three suspects killed on Friday.

The coast of Suriname and Guyana is plagued by piracy, prompting Guyana's parliament to approve tougher penalties. The president has not yet signed legislation to punish piracy with life in prison and allow the death penalty for murder during a pirate attack.

Most attacks off Guyana and Suriname target small fishing boats, unlike the brazen attacks that occur off Somalia's coast in Africa, where heavily armed pirates sometimes use speedboats to overcome large vessels.