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This was their biggest catch and the first time the Somali pirates infesting waters off the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden operated out in the Indian Ocean southeast of Kenya’s main port of Mombasa. The Saudi Sirius Star 319,430 dwt supertanker, the size of three football fields and loaded with Saudi oil heading for export markets, was captured some days ago with its 25 crew, one of whose members is British.DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that the Somali pirates are expanding their area of operation and preying on shipping as far afield as the Bab el-Mandeb Straits, the point at which the Red Sea flows into the Indian Ocean. The pirate bands work largely hand in glove with al Qaeda’s Horn of Africa network and associated Somali Islamist rebels.Since the beginning of 2008, they have seized 33 vessels – freighters, arms ships and yachts. Only 16 were freed, almost all of them against hefty multimillion dollar ransoms. Sunday, Nov. 16, the Danish Stolt Valor chemical tanker was recovered for $1.1 million, but the Japanese 20,000-ton cargo ship Chemstar Venus was seized a few hours later.DEBKAfile’s sources note that the pirates taunt US, European and Russian warships patrolling the ocean off Somalia. They watch to see which way the warships are heading and their well-equipped speedboats make for quarry in the opposite direction. They also take advantage of the lack of coordination between the various fleets deployed specifically to curtail piracy.According to Lloyd’s List, the pirates are unlikely to be scared off launching attacks on merchant shipping despite the killing of two — and perhaps three — of their number in a recent shoot-out with the British Royal Navy. The naval vessels patrolling the waters are too few to cope with the expanding scourge.As in the days of Noah...
