Navy adds more ships to watch of Somalia pirates arm ship

Washington Post:

The U.S. Navy bolstered its force of warships off Somalia on Monday, intensifying its watch over Somali pirates holding a hijacked Ukrainian-operated vessel with crew members, arms and tanks aboard.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, said "there are now several U.S. ships" within eyesight of the hijacked ship, Faina, which according to the Kenyan government was bound for Kenya when it was seized last week. The pirates are negotiating for ransom with the vessel's owner.

Speaking by telephone from Bahrain, Christensen declined to say how exactly many other U.S. warships had joined the USS Howard, a guided-missile destroyer, off Somalia. The U.S. ships were staying in international waters off Somalia, Christensen said, while the Somali pirates kept the Faina within the 12-mile territorial bounds of Somali waters.

U.S. sailors remained close enough to see the ship, and had established bridge-to-bridge contact via radio, he said.

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Russia has said it is sending a warship as well.

Radio France International said Monday it had spoken, apparently by cell-phone, with a pirate aboard the Faina, who said at least three warships were near the hijacked ship.

"Ships and troops have surrounded us," said a man identified by RFI as pirate Sugule Ali. He spoke in Somali. "There's a lot of unusual movement surrounding us and planes are flying overhead. I warn anyone who might be tempted by any military operation or use of force, if we're attacked, we'll defend ourselves, until the last one of us dies."

The man repeated a demand for $20 million in ransom, as well as the release of the ship and the crew.

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The world would be a better place if all the pirates were dead. I think the more effective way to stop these pirate attacks is to attack their bases and destroy them. That does not mean we have to occupy them. We just have to destroy their bases and their boats. My guess is that we already have enough information to identify their location. It is much easier to destroy their bases than to play whack-a-mole with the ones that are attacking chips.