U.S. warship attacks pirates off Somalia

http://www.alaskareport.com/z46167_warship_somalia.htm

June 6, 2007
Somalia - Navy officials said Wednesday that a U.S. Navy warship fired shots at pirates who had hijacked a Danish-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia but was unsuccessful in blocking the piracy.


Saturday's incident underscores growing U.S. military involvement in the Horn of Africa, not just against suspected al Qaeda targets but also against an increasingly violent pirate trade waters off Somalia's coast.

According to U.S. military sources, the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall had been on patrol in international waters in the area when it encountered the MV Danica White cargo ship. Pirates were in control of the bridge and had taken the crew hostage.

The Carter Hall crew fired machine gun bursts, first as warning shots and then disabling shots.

"She fired several warning shots and fired disabling shots at three skiffs small boats in tow behind the White and pretty much destroyed the skiffs," Lt. Denise Garcia of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet told Reuters news service. Pirates used the skiffs to board the cargo ship, she said.

Or even an LSD. LSDs are lightly armed. Their function is to take amphibious units to places near where they are to make landings.

See http://www.carter-hall.navy.mil/default.aspx for the real deal. It's not a combat ship, not very suitable for pirate interdiction.

I bet it's called the SS Timothy Leary

The now-decomissioned USS Fort Fisher.

http://navysite.de/ships/lsd40.htm

It was a hoot! I got to stay in an officer's quarters, hang out with Marines who were all reading The Hunt for Red October, and shoot all kinds of gnarly military weapons.

I guess we could call it a Bush war. Ha!

Seriously, isn't Bush killing enough people already to quench his blood-lust?

pirate attacks in south east asia and to a lesser extent africa is a growing problem. if the us navy can do something about the problem it`s money well spent

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GD09Ae02.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4409662.stm

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1014/p06s03-woaf.html

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=136&art_id=qw1087475041551A162

U.S. Navy warship fired shots at pirates who had hijacked a Danish-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia but was unsuccessful in blocking the piracy.