France captures 11 suspected Somali pirates

Source: Washington Post

PARIS (Reuters) - France intercepted 11 suspected Somali pirates on Sunday after they mistook a French naval ship for a commercial vessel and started heading toward it in preparation for an attack, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Heavily-armed Somali pirates have stepped up their attacks on vessels in Indian Ocean shipping lanes and the Gulf of Aden, capturing dozens of vessels, kidnapping hundreds of hostages and raking in millions of dollars in ransoms.

The French navy seized the suspected pirates, who were in three small boats, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.

"They confused the Nivose with a commercial ship and rushed toward it, to intercept it," the spokesman said.

"The Nivose then put its own craft in the water with its commandos and sent out a helicopter and stopped these 11 pirates who were on these three boats."





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/03/AR2009050300940.html

---

Oops!

(AFP)

3 May 2009

.......................
‘Visual on two skiffs.’ Nivose lieutenant commander Jean-Marc Le Quilliec dashes out of his cabin, certain that the pirates spotted by a Spanish vessel the previous day are at his mercy.

At around 0500 GMT, the French vessel moved into the sun to keep its cover.

‘They’re speeding right towards us,’ Le Quilliec marvelled. ‘Let’s just head into the sun and then we’ll turn around to hit them head on.’

When the unsuspecting pirates were close enough, the Nivose unleashed commandos on outboards and dispatched a helicopter to interdict the pirates, leaving them no chance.

.................

The helicopter fired two warning shots to stop one of the two skiffs from fleeing. There was only one pirate left on the mother-ship, which was also intercepted moments later, with nothing on board except fuel and potatoes.

‘He apparently thought the pirates had hijacked us,’ said Le Quilliec.

The French forces found two Kalashnikov assault rifles on one of the skiffs, ammunition, a rocket-launcher and five grenades which were deemed a hazard by the Nivose command and tossed into the sea.
.............................

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/May/international_May228.xml§ion=international



http://www.dn.se/polopoly_fs/1.857349!image/1538844966.gif_gen/derivatives/article-landscape/1538844966.gif



http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5h-ZAKcP0ObpK2yHaGrqQKDTGLPNg

Report: 3 suspected pirates arrested in Seychelles

By KATHARINE HOURELD – 10 hours ago

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Seychelles coast guard boat arrested three suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean off the islands that depend heavily on tourism, state media reported Sunday.

Brigitte Ahshung at the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation said the three men were expected in port Sunday evening aboard the Andromache.

A French defense ministry spokesman said the three had previously been detained and interrogated by sailors on the French warship Nivose, which delivered 11 suspected pirates to Kenya last month.

Christophe Prazuck says the three were on a 32-foot (10-meter) fishing boat loaded with 13 barrels of fuel, water and food but no weapons. Pirates often use larger vessels as resupply ships that tow their small, fast speedboats hundreds of miles out to sea.

But European Union officials decided there was not sufficient proof to detain the men, freed them Friday and alerted Seychelles' officials, which picked the men up Saturday.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gB7YMEDuCwwY9ncDOtPAkEI4-H2wD97UM8600

The EU officials let them go. Unbefuckinglievable.

will you explain for us why the US is the only Western power that hasn't signed the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 (Montego Bay) that among other things regulates the treatment of captured pirates ?

have to do with the decision of EU authorities to let the pirates go?

Anyway, the US may yet ratify the treaty. Hillary Clinton is in favor of ratification.

We certainly have more leverage before than we would have after.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

the war the US lost to Canada and when Washington was burned down ?

By the way, it's a joke. I actually love France and its culture.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

What other ethnicity or nationality would not be offended at being constantly associated with defeat and cowardice ?

one of the worse btw

They'll wish they'd been captured by us.

Except we torture, apparently...

Staying home to help rebuild their miserable excuse for a country would have been the best alternative of all for those Blackbeard wanna-bes.

Way to go, France! :thumbsup:

More cost-effective, and as an added bonus the sailors get to practice their combat skills in a live fire drill.

They will have too let them go . Just a hunch

Oh,
but the French should throw the fishing tackle over the side.