5th Fleet Focus: Groundhog Day Off Somalia

About a month ago, the US Navy had a press conference in Bahrain and suggested the Navy would be increasing its presence off Somalia. We don't know what happened with that, but when news broke yesterday that a German Tanker was hijacked by pirates, it became the sixth ship to be hijacked since that announcement.

Eagle1 has been tracking all of the piracy activities, including the four tankers hijacked this week. Responding to the increase in piracy, Bloomberg is reporting the Navy is going to deploy more ships and aircraft off Somalia.

Western coalition warships and aircraft will conduct patrols to boost security in the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. Navy said, after pirates hijacked a German ship off Somalia's coast -- the sixth such seizure this month.

"The idea is to counter and deter destabilizing activity in the area," Lieutenant Stephanie Murdock, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, said in a telephone interview today from Bahrain. "It's part of the plan to help with regional security in the area. This is an area which we're keeping an eye on."

Bottom line, coalition naval forces aren't able to aid victims and nobody is stepping up to stop it. often with coalition warships passing right next to hijacked ships. There is no political will in the west to stop piracy, and the rules of engagement are so restrictive that even when pirates are identified at sea, coalition forces simply scare them away.

We have not seen any evidence that Somalian pirates are linked to global jihad movements, however we do note that if things continue without action on the part of coalition Navies, the jihad will soon be able to go to sea, and that can lead to serious trouble.

Islamist rebels seized control of a port in southern Somalia on Friday after 70 people died in fighting, the worst in months, that started Wednesday night, residents said. The last two days were particularly bloody, with the insurgents battling a pro-government militia in the southern port of Kismayu and similar clashes breaking out in the capital, Mogadishu. "Kismayu is under our control. We overpowered them and concluded the fighting," said Sheik Mukhtar Robow, an Islamist spokesman.

Al Qaeda has been calling for Naval Terror Cells for the last three months. Maybe we are mistaken, but it seems to us that by taking a port, that capability has been enabled. The US Navy could very soon find itself doing some shooting, but it won't be near Georgia or Iran.