Pirates menace fleet oiler off Somalia - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Pirates menace fleet oiler off Somalia

NORFOLK, Va. — Two unmarked and unflagged skiffs raced toward a 41,000-ton U.S. fleet oiler in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia on Wednesday, a Navy spokesman said. A security team embarked on the oiler fired on the boats, forcing them to peel away in the latest incidence of pirate activity in the region.

The two boats approached the John Lenthall, a Kaiser-class Military Sealift Command civilian-manned strike group replenishment ship that operates out of Naval Station Norfolk.

“They came up on the ship about 300 to 400 yards,” said Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain. “These skiffs came out and approached after bridge-to-bridge calls and loud hailers and flares.”

When the skiffs, approaching from behind, failed to back off, sailors from an embarked security detachment fired warning shots. The suspected pirates raced away.

The incident comes one month into stepped-up efforts by coalition naval forces to enforce order in a specified patrol zone in the Gulf of Aden, called the Maritime Security Patrol Area.

Despite the consistent presence of at least six warships from the U.S. and other allied nations in the zone, attacks persist. And while Christensen said the forces have deterred 12 attacks in the area, the Lenthall incident did not occur in the special zone.

“Coalition maritime efforts will give the [International Maritime Office] time to work international efforts that will ultimately lead to a long-term solution,” Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, 5th Fleet commander, said in a statement. “This is a problem that starts ashore and requires an international solution. We made this clear at the outset — our efforts cannot guarantee safety in the region. Our part in preventing some of these destabilizing activities is only one part of the solution to preventing further attacks.”

He suggested mariners in the area should take more responsibility for their own safety.

“The coalition does not have the resources to provide 24-hour protection for the vast number of merchant vessels in the region,” he said. “The shipping companies must take measures to defend their vessels and their crews.”

Christensen added that the area of responsibility for the coalition task force is vast, even if the majority of piracy takes place in shipping lanes offshore.

“The assets are required throughout the 2.4 million square miles of area we have here,” he said. “We just don’t have the resources to provide 24-hour protection for the shipping and tankers passing through the area.”

Recent news reports saying that the Russian navy has decided to begin operating there only complicated an already murky international problem.

“They are reportedly coming to the area. They are not part of the coalition. They’d be welcome here,” Christensen said.

Whether the Russians will play along remains unclear. “We have not had any interaction with them here at headquarters,” he said.

Natasha Brown, a spokeswoman at the IMO, a London-based arm of the United Nations, said the organization is acting diplomatically to thwart the regional piracy threat. One measure in the works is an extension of a U.N. mandate that allows naval forces to pursue pirates into the 12-mile territorial waters off Somalia, despite the lack of a functioning government ashore.

“That resolution runs out in December, so it’s quite important it’s extended by the U.N. Security Council,” she said.

The IMO catalogs piracy incidents from Asia to South America to the Middle East, in port and on the open sea. Its bulletins often contain chilling, if seemingly archaic, details about grappling hooks, knives, canoes and even pirates boarding ships by crawling up the anchor chain.

Usually crews are robbed or taken hostage, but not always. In a recent incident in the Gulf of Aden, “Two pirate boats opened fire on the container ship underway. Two coalition warships, in the vicinity came to assist the ship. The pirates aborted the attack. All crew safe.”

In another recent incident, CNN reported that pirates off the coast of Kenya seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and ammunition Thursday. The crew had specifically avoided the waters off Somalia to prevent an attack.

Brown said regional and international stakeholders plan to meet soon to hammer out the details of establishing a “regional maritime information center.” But until piracy is erased, the IMO warns transiting mariners to take precautions.

“We just reiterate the advice we give shipping owners, which is keep a distance away,” she said.