Somalia « The Irate Nation

Somali pirates hijack the Greece-flagged Maran Centaurus

The Greece-flagged Maran Centaurus was hijacked Sunday about 800 miles off the coast of Somalia, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. Harbour said it originated from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and was destined for the United States. The ship has 28 crew members on board, he said.

The hijacking of a tanker increases worries that the vessel could crash, be run aground or be involved in a firefight, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at London-based think tank Chatham House.

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Pirates Hold Weapons-Laden Ship Hostage Under Joint U.S.-Russia Surveillance

A heavily armed U.S. destroyer was stationed off the coast of Somalia on Sunday, making sure that pirates there don't remove tanks, ammunition and other heavy weapons from a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship.

Somalia's Interim Leader Backs U.S. Strike on Al-Qaida

Via: NewsMax.com Somalia's interim president say a U.S. strike late Monday on al-Qaida
hideouts in his country was the right thing to do. The air strike
targeted several al-Qaida operatives involved in the 1998 bombings of
the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Speaking to Somali reporters in Mogadishu, interim President
Abdullahi Yusuf said al-Qaida terrorists had been using the lawless
Horn of African country as a safe haven and a base for their operations
for years.

He said he did not blame the United States for taking action against them.

Yusuf says the United States had a right to attack the men, who carried
out the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam
and who are now on the run. He says the same men were probably also
involved in the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan coastal
town of Mombasa in 2002.