Schlagwort: Piracy

German Navy releases video of Somali pirates hijacking German vessel in 2010

Almost to the day four years ago, on April 5, 2010, Somali pirates hijacked the German MV Taipan in the Indian Ocean. A few hours later, Dutch marines boarded the container vessel, arresting ten pirates who in the end faced trial in a German court. While the role of the Dutch boarding team had been higlighted in news reports (undoubtedly because the Dutch released video footage of the boarding rather soon; see below), the role of a German Maritime Reconnaissance

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After two years‘ trial, Somali pirates get prison sentences in Hamburg

It should have been an easy case. More than two years ago, a gang of armed robbers captured a merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean. Before they could take the crew hostage, the seamen hid in a safe room, stopped the engines and called fort help. And help came swiftly: a few hours later, heavily armed soldiers fast roped from a helicopter, re-took the vessel and arrested the pirates. What happend on Easter Monday, April 5, 2010, on the German-flagged

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UK revised rules for private armed guards vs pirates: Don’t wait for the aggressor to strike

While in Germany the rules on the use of private armed guards to fight pirates from German-flagged ships are still unclear (obviously due to a lacking agreement between the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of the Interior), the United Kingdom has revised it rules on private security company on British ships. Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham explained this yesterday: Following the Government’s announcement last autumn that we would allow the use of privately contracted armed guards on board UK

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EUNAVFOR’s Potts: Put pressure on the pirates everywhere (Audio)

British Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, operations commander of EUNAVFOR, the European Union’s anti-piracy operation Atalanta off Somalia, was in Berlin today to brief members of the German parliament on the planned expansion of the Atalanta mandate: as decided by EU defense and foreign ministers last week, EUNAVFOR’s warships will soon have permission to attack the pirates‘ logistics ashore in Somalia. Germany is one – and not the only – country weary of this expansion, so Potts had a tough job

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For NATO (and others), it’s gloves off against Somali pirates

The incidents were published step by step. In the beginning of April, according to NATO’s counter piracy operation Ocean Shield, marines from the Dutch frigate Tromp boarded a pirate mothership off the Somali coast, killing two pirates when returning fire. Also around that time, the Danish Naval Command – but not NATO – informed last week, the Danish warship Esbern Snare had intercepted a pirate mothership off the Somali coast, wounding three pirates when returning fire. You could have assumed

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