Su,Richard20

Somali pirates hijack a supertanker "oil tanker" By:Generalissimo of all Armed Forces Richard Su 1st Tiger Marine Amphibious Intellegence Regiment 642nd Dragonknight Special Armed Forces Division/Task Force 936 (Stealth Squads) 1st and 22nd SAS Special Forces Recon Army/Task Force 628 (Firestorm Squads) 2nd and 75th Army Rangers Special Ops Recon Army/Task Force 246 (Gryphon Squads) 3rd, 7th and 10th Green Berets Special Ops Army/ Task Force 156 (Predator Squads) 4th, 8th and 11th Delta Force Special Ops Army/Task Forces 716 (Eagle Squads) 5th and 10th Navy SEALS Teams/ Task Forces 2316 and 6015 (Tactical Squads) 6th and 12th Marines Raiders Security Force Army/ Task Forces 001 and 007 (Honor Squads) 9th,14th,15th and 16th Spetsnaz Recon Teams/Task Forces 6,24,15,and 60 (Dragoon Squads) Summary: The Somalian pirates have hijacked a Greek supertanker with oil on board from Saudi Arabia heading for the US. There were 28 crewmen on board the ship which were comprised of 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and one Romanian. The Greek ship, named the Maran Centaurus, was hijacked about 800 miles off the coast of Somalia. This ship was "filled with oil" which is a jackpot for the Somali pirates. Pirate attacks have been common off the coast of Somalia and the navies of international countries are trying to counter them. The ship was travelling fairly slowly about 11-15 knots or 20-27 km/h when it was hijacked by the armed pirates. It was en route for New Orleans from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. This event shows that the Somali pirates are getting bolder at their attempts to hijack ships. War-torn Somalia has had no functioning government since 1991, allowing pirates to operate along the lawless coast almost with impunity. (BBC) The pirates in recent months have ben operation outside of their coast in what is believed as "motherships" before going on to the tiny fishing boats to hijack incoming international ships. Pirates are currently holding 11 vessels and 264 crew members in Somalia, the Navfor spokesman said. (BBC) Navfor is the EU (European Union) Naval task force. Last November, another ship, the Sirius Star was hijacked by the pirates. This ship had a deadweight of 318000 tons. A couple months later, in January, the ship was released on a $3 million dollars ransom. Earlier this month, the US has been using unmanned drones to survey the waters near Somali and its coastline. Sources: BBC News: [] Al Jazeera: [] Similar-The information on the ship is very similar. They agree on the ship's releasing ransom of 3 million. Their agree with the # of barrels that were carried in the last year's hijack. Different- The length of the articles were different. Their titles were different. Al Jazeera sort of summarized the BBC article. Opinion- Once again the Somali pirates have struck again. This is not good because its like they are get there money dor free from the countries that have ships passing through their waters. When will these pirates stop? Never? I really think that the tanker and other transport ship should have some protection on board or along side with the ship. Piracy is a big thing in Somalia.