Brits Perforate Piss-Poor Pirates

The Royal Navy is making their presence felt off the coast of Somalia already, as 2 Somali pirates were shot and killed by the Brits.

The Ministry of Defence revealed that a small vessel, suspected of being involved in an attempted hijacking of a Danish cargo ship, was intercepted in the Gulf of Aden.
Crews launched from the HMS Cumberland exchanged fire with the boat, which was believed to be Yemeni, before they boarded the craft.
"Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self-defence," an MoD spokesman said.
"A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the ship's doctor.
"It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the fire fight or a previous incident involving the pirates."
The fatal shootings are reportedly the first taken at sea by the Royal Navy since the Falklands war.

A couple of Somali pirates have ceased contributing to the harassment of the shipping lane:

British commandos killed two suspected pirates who tried to seize a Danish ship in the Gulf of Aden during an unprecedented operation involving a Royal Navy and a Russian warship, it was revealed yesterday.
The suspected pirates were shot after the Royal Marine commandos, in rigid inflatable boats launched from the frigate HMS Cumberland, were fired at from a Yemeni flagged dhow, the Ministry of Defence said.
The Cumberland had been conducting routine Nato security operations in the Gulf of Aden, the MoD said, when a number of its crew boarded the dhow, which was towing a skiff.
The British crew 'had reason to believe' the dhow had been involved in an armed attack on the Danish-registered vessel, the MV Powerful, earlier on Tuesday, the day of the gunfight. 'Various non-forcible methods had been used in an attempt to stop the dhow but they were unsuccessful,' the MoD said.

There is also an update on the MV Faina:

US warships from the 5th Fleet are still surrounding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship captured off Somalia by pirates demanding a $5m ransom on September 25. The ship was reportedly transporting 33 T-72 tanks as well as other arms to Kenya. The crew - 17 Ukrainian nationals, two Russians and one Lithuanian - yesterday managed to send an email to a journal in Kiev saying they were running out of fuel, water and food. "The last warning of the soldiers [pirates] is that if the ransom demands are not satisfied the cargo and crew will be destroyed," wrote the captives.

View Larger Map

By: Brant