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Pirates open fire on cargo ship
15/05/2007 17:58 - (SA)
Eileen Ng
Kuala Lumpur - Pirates fired grenade launchers and machine guns at a cargo ship in the Indian Ocean far off the coast of Somalia, sparking concerns that key shipping routes are threatened, a Malaysia-based maritime watchdog said on Tuesday.
The Qatar-flagged cargo ship, Ibn Younus, managed to escape during an hour-long chase as it headed from Durban in South Africa to Jebel Ali in Dubai after it was attacked on Monday, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Choong said piracy was on the rise again in Somalia with Monday's attack the fifth since April.
Three men in a speed boat, armed with machine guns and grenade launchers, approached the ship and ordered it to stop, he said.
"They started firing with machine guns toward the bridge of the ship. The emergency alarm was raised and the ship took measures to prevent the pirates from boarding," said Choong.
"The pirates then opened fire with the grenade launcher and successfully hit the crew's cabins, causing severe damage," he said.
Old warlord 'returning'
Choong said the ship took a zigzag course to evade the pirates and managed to escape.
The ship's crew was safe and nobody was injured.
The attack - Somalia's seventh at sea so far this year - occurred 180 nautical miles off the coast, compared to previous raids that took place close to the shoreline, said Choong.
"We are concerned about this latest attack which happened so far off the coast of Somalia. It appears the old warlords are coming back. This trend is dangerous because it could disrupt shipping routes," Choong said.
Somalia lies close to crucial shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean, where valuable cargo and carriers must pass.
Pirate attacks dropped to 10 last year in anarchy-wracked Somalia, from 35 in 2005, following increased patrols by Western naval ships, including US, Dutch and Belgian vessels.
'Beef up patrols'
He said: "It has been more than a year since Somali pirates had gone so far out to sea to attack ships.
"We urge the coalition naval forces to beef up patrols before piracy gets out of hand again."
Somalia has had no effective government since 1991, when warlords ousted a dictatorship and then turned on each other. The country's 3 000km coastline makes it difficult to prevent attacks.
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