Piracy hard to fight on today’s seas

A multinational naval force patrolling the waters where pirates have grown bolder and more violent, announced a rare success Wednesday. But 17 ships, including a Saudi supertanker, and hundreds of hostages remain in pirates’ hands. And eye-popping ransoms are turning some Somali coastal villages into bandit boomtowns.

Mounting toll

Separate bands of pirates on Tuesday seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden, raising to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked. Seventeen vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew members. They include the Saudi-owned supertanker MV Sirius Star, carrying $100 million in crude and 25 crew members.

Vital sea lanes

The Gulf of Aden connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal, the quickest route from Asia to Europe and the Americas. The route is thousands of miles and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa.

On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker. “We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden,” said Terje Storeng, Odfjell’s president and chief executive.

Rising risks

“It’s getting out of control,” Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center, said. “The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high.”

So far the pirates have not allied with al-Qaida militants in Somalia, but that could change. Or, the militants could be inspired by shipping’s vulnerability to launch their own pirate attacks. “If some pirates with a few machine guns are able to hijack a supertanker, you can imagine what al-Qaida could do,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of the Swiss oil market research firm Petromatrix.

Patrols spread thin

NATO has three warships in the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet also has ships in the region. But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell said naval patrols cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.

“We do not have naval assets —- either ships or airplanes —- to be everywhere with every single ship,” she said.

Mother ship destroyed

The Indian navy sank a suspected pirate “mother ship” in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday.

When the INS Tabar, operating Tuesday off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a suspected pirate vessel for a search, “Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck … with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers,” the Indian navy said. When the pirates opened fire, Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts that destroyed the ship.

The Indian sailors chased one of two speedboats shadowing the larger ship, later finding one abandoned. The other escaped.

Local heroes

Somalia’s increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, and marrying beautiful women in northern Somali coastal towns like Harardhere, Eyl and Bossaso.

And in an impoverished country plagued by a hard-line Islamic insurgency where every public institution has crumbled, they have become heroes because they are the only real businesses in town.

“The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them,” said Sahra Sheik Dahir, a shop owner in Harardhere, the nearest village to where the hijacked Saudi supertanker is being held.

“It has started a life in our town,” said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Harardhere. “Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are happy.”

Hostages and big hauls

The attackers generally treat their hostages well in anticipation of a big payday, hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled fish and roasted meat that will appeal to a Western palate. And when payday comes, the money sometimes literally falls from the sky.

Pirates say the ransoms —- which have reached $30 million this year alone —- arrive in burlap sacks, sometimes dropped from buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto tiny skiffs in the roiling, shark-infested sea.

The pirates use money-counting machines —- the same technology seen at foreign exchange bureaus worldwide —- to ensure the cash is real.

“Getting this equipment is easy for us, we have business connections with people in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and other areas,” Aden Yusuf, a pirate in Eyl, said. “So we send them money and they send us what we want.”