Somali Pirates: NATO Stops Hijack, Finds Pirate Explosives

Reported here:

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.
***
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. NATO said earlier that the Ariana was Norwegian-owned, but the ship's operators, Oslo-based Polyar Tankers AS, said it was owned by Greek ship-owner Polys Haji-Ioannou.

Another, perhaps clearer, report here:

Portuguese warship briefly held 19 pirates armed with high explosives after foiling an attack on a Norwegian tanker in the Gulf of Aden, NATO said on Saturday, while Somali pirates said they had seized a Ukrainian ship.
Military personnel stand guard over detained pirates aboard a vessel in the Gulf of Aden May 1, 2009. Portuguese warship Corte-Real captured, disarmed and briefly detained 19 pirates armed with high-explosives after they attempted to attack a Norwegian-owned oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said on Saturday.

NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes said the Norwegian crude oil tanker MV Kition radioed for help on Friday afternoon as a skiff full of pirates brandishing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades approached.

"We were the nearest warship, so we immediately scrambled our helicopter," said Fernandes from onboard the Corte-Real, which was about 20 nautical miles north of the MV Kition when the distress call went out.

The helicopter spotted the skiff and began tracking the pirates who fled to their mothership, a dhow carrying 19 heavily-armed pirates, which was later intercepted after a high-speed chase by a Portuguese escort frigate.

Eight marines then managed to board the vessel.

"They surrendered immediately," said Fernandes, who added no injuries were reported and the pirates did not shoot at the Bahamas-flagged merchant vessel, the helicopter or the marines.

About the Cort-Real here. About Kition here.

Photo of Kition from Shipspotting.com by Foggy and used in accord with terms of use of Shipspotting. com.