US
destroyer
tracking
hijacked
vessels
off
Somali
coast
17 hours
ago
NAIROBI
(AFP) —
The US
Navy
said
Thursday
it was
still
tracking
two
foreign
freighters
that
were
hijacked
off the
Somali
coast
with a
view to
combating
the
pirates
on
board.
A
naval
ship was
monitoring
North
Korea's
MV Dai
Hong Dan
and
Japanese
chemical
tanker
Golden
Mori
after
engaging
pirates
who had
hijacked
the
vessels,
officials
said.
"Piracy
is a
very
complex
problem
and the
US Navy
is still
monitoring
the
situation
off the
Somali
coast,"
US Navy
spokeswoman
Lieutenant
Jessica
L. Gandy
told
AFP.
The
US
military
on
Sunday
destroyed
two
small
boats
that
were
tied to
the
Golden
Mori,
which
has 23
Korean,
Filipino
and
Myanmar
crew on
board,
after it
was
hijacked
off the
coast of
northern
Somalia.
The
USS
James E.
Williams
(DDG 95)
destroyer
on
Tuesday
came to
the
rescue
of MV
Dai Hong
Dan,
helping
the crew
to
regain
control.
Twenty-two
sailors
were on
board
from
southern
Asia.
One
pirate
was
killed
and
others
captured,
but some
pirates
remain
on
board.
"The
goal of
the US
Navy is
to get
the
pirates
off the
ships,"
a navy
spokeswoman
said.
Rampant
piracy
off
Somalia's
vast
coastline
stopped
in the
second
half of
2006
during
six
months
of
strict
rule by
an
Islamist
movement,
ousted
by
Ethiopian
and
Somali
government
troops
at the
end of
the
year.
The
International
Maritime
Bureau
has
urged
freighters
to stay
away
from
Somalia,
whose
3,700-kilometre
(2,300-miles)
coastline
is a
hotspot
in sea
ambushes.
The
French
navy is
due
mid-November
to
deploy a
vessel
to
protect
UN World
Food
Programme-charted
ships,
which
have
been
targeted
while
ferrying
supplies
to
Somalia
in
recent
months.
Somalia,
which
lies in
a
strategic
position
at the
mouth of
the Red
Sea, has
been
without
an
effective
government
since
the 1991
ouster
of
dictator
Mohamed
Siad
Barre
sparked
a bloody
power
struggle.
The
three-year-old
Somali
administration,
torn
apart by
infighting,
is
unable
to stem
piracy
in its
waters
and a
deadly
insurgency
raging
in the
capital
Mogadishu.
