Tel-Chai Nation

NATO forces captured more Somali pirates who were carrying dynamite. Unfortunately, there's bad news too:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Special forces on a Portuguese warship seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates after thwarting an attack on an oil tanker, but later freed the 19 men. Hours later and hundreds of miles away, another band of pirates hijacked a cargo ship, a NATO spokesman said Saturday.

Pirates are now holding 17 ships and around 300 crew, including the Greek-owned cargo ship Ariana, hijacked overnight with its Ukrainian crew.

The attack on the Ariana, about 1,000 miles (1600 kilometers) from the sea corridor NATO guards and the seizure of explosives from the group that attacked the crude oil tanker MV Kition may indicate the pirates are adapting their tactics as crews become better trained in counter-piracy measures.

Sailors are aware that pirates generally attack during the day and that some guidelines suggest designating a safe room with a bulletproof door where crews can lock themselves in case of an attack. Such a room would still be vulnerable to being blown open with explosives.

It was the first time NATO forces found pirates armed with raw explosives, Lt. Cmdr. Fernandes said from the Portuguese frigate the Corte-Real, which responded to the attack. The Corte-Real had sent a helicopter to investigate a distress call from the Greek-owned and Bahamian-flagged Kition late Friday about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north from the Somali coast in the Gulf of Aden.

The suspects fled to a larger pirate vessel without damaging the Kition, but were intercepted by the warship an hour later.

"The skiff had returned to the mothership," Fernandes said, referring to the vessels pirates commonly use to tow their small, fast speed boats hundreds of miles (kilometers) out to sea. "Portuguese special forces performed the boarding with no exchange of fire."

They found four sticks of P4A dynamite - which can be used in demolition, blasting through walls or potentially breaching a the hull of a ship - which were destroyed along with four automatic rifles and nine rocket-propelled grenades. It was unclear how the pirates planned to use the dynamite, Fernandes said, because there were no translators to conduct interrogations.

The 19 pirate suspects were released after consultation with Portuguese authorities because they had not attacked Portuguese property or citizens.

Excuse me? These disgusting POS threatened/endangered other people's lives in the process of committing a hijack, some of them even had explosives, and they won't even arrest them or transfer them to other authorities from countries where the crew are citizens? Once again, we have something to tell just why the war on modern day piracy will not be won, if sea authorities are going to release these criminals, and even destroy evidence that could be used against them in court.

Labels: Africa, Europe, terrorism, war on terror