Saturday, September 19, 2024

Ramadan Ends, Here Come the Pirates!

There are several private advisories of attacks off Somalia this morning suggesting several small boats are armed off the Horn of Africa. So far, no details have hit the news, except this one.
Iranian warships opened fire on suspected pirate boats in the Gulf of Aden to prevent an attempted hijack of three Iranian commercial vessels, a navy commander said on Saturday.

"After the boats ignored warnings, the pirates were sent fleeing by our shooting and they left the area," state radio quoted Fariborz Qaderpanah as saying. He said the incident took place on Friday.
The international naval forces are expecting a busy weekend. The alerts and warnings are coming from just about everywhere, suggesting coalition observation assets are doing their job offering early warning.

I spoke with Rear Adm. Scott Sanders, vice commander for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, and British Royal Navy Capt. Keith Blount, the task force’s chief of staff, during a bloggers roundtable back on September 11th. Talking to the CTF-151 folks, it is impossible to measure the international coalitions influence in curbing piracy. They are clearly doing good things intercepting armed boats and donating the guns and grenades to the Indian Ocean deep, but they don't give any statistics for comparison regarding frequency of intercepts that would allow an observer to compare to the number of attacking vessels there were this time last year.

Still, I came away from that conversation very encouraged. There is evidence that coordination, trust, and cooperation is building among the international naval forces on station. That confidence and trust in each other can't be surged, as CS-21 notes, it is developed over time. In that regard, the Navy strategy is unquestionably working.

Did the vast majority of pirates take Ramadan off from pirate activity? Hard to tell, the weather before Ramadan prevented pirates from operating in their small vessels. The surge in attacks this morning off Somalia would suggest the pirates simply waited until the first morning after Ramadan to return to business as usual. Will a pattern develop, and will the international community successfully prevent hijackings? Time will tell, and this is when all of the efforts of the last several months by all the international partners gets tested.

Look for the news reports to break over the next few hours with details of the attacks.

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