http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5141745.ece



Pirates caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty’s warships after trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

In the ensuing gunfight, two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed, and a third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died. It was the first time the Royal Navy had been engaged in a fatal shoot-out on the high seas in living memory.

By the time the Royal Marines boarded the pirates’ vessel, the enemy had lost the will to fight and surrendered quietly. The Royal Navy described the boarding as “compliant”.

Yesterday’s dramatic confrontation, the latest in a series of piracy incidents in the Gulf of Aden in recent months, took place 60 miles south of the Yemeni coast and involved the Royal Navy Type 22 frigate, HMS Cumberland, which has a Royal Marine unit on board, on short-notice standby to engage in “non-compliant boardings”.


HMS Cumberland, on anti-piracy partol as part of a Nato maritime force, detected the dhow which was towing a skiff, and identified it as a vessel which had been involved in an attack on the Danish-registered MV Powerful earlier yesterday. The pirates had opened fire on the cargo boat with assault rifles.

Under rules of engagement which allows the Royal Navy to intervene when pirates are positively identified, the commandos were dispatched from the frigate in rigid-raider craft and sped towards the pirates’ dhow. The Ministry of Defence said the Marines circled the pirates’ boat to try and persuade them to stop.

As they approached, however, several of the pirates, a mixed crew of Somalis and Yemenis, swung their assault rifles in their direction and opened fire. The MoD said the Royal Marines returned fire “in self defence”, and then boarded the dhow — a stolen Yemeni-registered fishing vessel.

The commandos found guns and other “paraphernalia” on board the dhow and a handful of terrified pirates. The MoD said it was unclear whether the Yemeni who died had been shot by the Marines or was wounded from a previous incident involving the pirates.

The gun battle was in stark contrast to the Royal Navy’s last encounter with a boatful of armed men - when crew members of HMS Cornwall, also a Type 22 frigate, patrolling in the Gulf in rigid raiders, were surrounded by heavily armed Iranian Revolutionary Guards in March last year. Eight sailors, including a woman, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, and seven Marines were taken hostage without a shot being fired, and detained for 13 days. The Commons Defence Committee described the incident as “a national embarrassment”.

Yesterday’s battle signalled a new policy of maximum robustness for the Royal Navy on the high seas. Captain Mike Davis-Marks, a senior spokesman for the Navy, said: “This is bound to have an impact on pirates who for the last two years have been getting away with seizing vessels and receiving large ransoms. Now suddenly there’s the threat of death and this may force them to think again, but they are determined people, so we’ll have to see.”

The Russians claimed a helicopter based on their own frigate Neustrashimy had also taken part in yesterday’s battle, though the Royal Navy knew nothing about it. The Royal Marine commandos who boarded the pirates’ dhow were supported by a Lynx helicopter from HMS Cumberland, the MoD said.

Nice ending ... Anyone know what happened to the tanks in this story?

That was my first though, but then again they were up against a badly trained, uneducated, poorly led rabble, who they obviously out gunned, rather than another nation's navy....

Having had my poke at them, they did a great job, this is the only way to deal with these pirates, hit them hard and fast leave survivors to tell just how things happened to discourage the other would be pirates, and keep hitting them every time the appear. Take the war to them, raiding parties into their homeland, destroying their home's and hunt them like we do terrorists.

Tony

Looks like them there Pirates need to be put out of business on a permanent basis.

Tony

Yes, they are getting very uppity, but the situation has accelerated so quickly in such a short period of time that I have no doubt that some time soon, it will all end in a world of tears and hurt

There is only so much that an on board armed response team can do, most of the western ports of the world would go bonkers if & when a merchant ship pulled into its berth and the A to Z team disembarked for some R'n'R., then there would be the ordinance and the international maritime laws covering weapons and ammo that are not cargo, but meant for self defence, about which I haven't the slightest idea.

I heard on the Radio today that the €uropean whatever was going to start looking at the humanitarian situation down there and see if they can give them a bung to stop them interfering with our shipping. Who says terrorism doesn't work.

Tony