Latest ONI World Wide Threat to Shipping ( to Jan 11, 2006)

For the latest ONI WorldWide Threat to Shipping, go here and click on the date.

Lots of pursuit (unsuccessful) by fishing boats and speed boats off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.

Stunner here, though:

14. SRI LANKA: A Sri Lankan Navy Fast Attack Craft was destroyed by an explosive rigged fishing vessel 07 Jan in the early morning while conducting a routine patrol off the eastern port city
of Trincomalee, near Foul Point. Twelve sailor were reported killed
and one missing. The Tamil rebels are the suspected perpetrators of
the attack. Indian newspapers report this was the first major attack
on the sea since the Norwegian-brokered truce agreement between
the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels came into
operation on Feb 2002. As a result of this attack, the Sri Lankan
navy has imposed restrictions on fishermen around key harbors and
camps in the northeast (LM).

Precisely the sort of attack many of us have been concerned about (see here and, more on point, here).
More on the attack here, here, here and here.

Navy officials quoted two sailors, who jumped into the sea just before their Dvora gunboat was blown up, as saying that a small craft that mingled with a flotilla of fishing boats had carried out the attack.

"The craft was about 30 metres away when the sailors noticed it making a dash for the gunboat," a navy source quoted a sailor as saying. "There was not enough time to move away or open fire."

I should have reported this sooner... time to update the news gathering system...