Pirates spark global alarm

Bosasso, Somalia: A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the world's biggest ship hijacking reached Somalia yesterday, and another vessel was captured off the lawless state.

The US navy said pirates had transported the Sirius Star - seized 450 nautical miles southeast off Kenya at the weekend in the boldest strike to date by Somali pirates - to Haradheere port half-way up the Horn of Africa nation's long coastline. Operator Vela International, shipping arm of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, said the 25-man crew was believed safe. They are from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. "At this time, Vela is awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel," Vela said.

Increasingly brazen pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters off Somalia has driven up insurance costs, forced some ships to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and secured millions of dollars in ransoms. The capture of the Star is one of the most spectacular strikes in maritime history.

"It looks like a deliberate two fingers from some very bright Somalis. Anyone who describes them as a bunch of camel herders needs to think again," one Somalia analyst said.

The seizure was carried out despite an international naval response, including from the Nato alliance and European Union, to protect one of the world's busiest shipping areas. US, French and Russian warships are also off Somalia.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said his country would throw its weight behind a European-led initiative to step up security in shipping lanes off Africa's east coast.

"This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy," he said.

But underlying the difficulty of containing the problem, China's official Xinhua agency said yesterday a Hong Kong cargo ship was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Association, said he thought a hijacked Nigerian tug was a "mother-ship" for the seizure of the Saudi vessel.

The fully-loaded supertanker was probably low in the water and therefore easy to board by ladder or rope, he said. Normally, the increasingly well-armed and sophisticated Somali pirates use speedboats and satellite phones to coordinate attacks, with the mother-ship as a base for their operations. Given that the pirates are well-armed with grenades, machineguns and rocket-launchers, foreign forces in the area steer clear of direct attacks and ship owners negotiate ransoms in most cases.

Oil exporters: Ship plans unchanged

Three of the Middle East's top oil exporting nations, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, have no immediate plans to alter their crude oil shipping operations despite an increased threat from pirates off East Africa.

The rest of top oil exporter Saudi Aramco's export shipping operations were unchanged despite the seizure, a spokesman for the state owned company said. Iran, the second-largest exporter in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), has also kept its shipping operations unchanged, an official said.

- Reuters