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| ROCK COUNTY NOW DAILY NEWS: World |
Pirates near Somalia's coastline attacked a cargo ship Wednesday
with a crew of at least 20 U.S. nationals aboard, according to the
company that owns the vessel.
Maersk Line Ltd issued a statement saying it believes the
U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was hijacked. If so, it would be the
sixth hijacking over the past week in the region.
The container vessel was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was
attacked about 500 kilometers (310 miles) off Somalia's coast, the
with a crew of at least 20 U.S. nationals aboard, according to the
company that owns the vessel.
Maersk Line Ltd issued a statement saying it believes the
U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was hijacked. If so, it would be the
sixth hijacking over the past week in the region.
The container vessel was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was
attacked about 500 kilometers (310 miles) off Somalia's coast, the
statement said. U.S. government sources said the ship was attacked about 7:30 a.m., and the closest U.
S. Navy warship was about 300 nautical miles away. On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy warned mariners that
pirates were attacking ships hundreds of miles offshore.
The cargo ship is owned and operated by a Maersk subsidiary in Norfolk, Virginia, Maersk spokesman
Michael Storgaard said.
He would not provide any details about the security arrangements on board the Maersk Alabama.
"We have very strict policies on the vessel ... crews are trained to handle these types of situations,"
Storgaard said from Maersk's headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.
He said the company is contacting the crew members' relatives and setting up assistance for them.
"That is at this moment our primary concern," Storgaard said.
The Maersk Line is one of the Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors, but the Maersk
Alabama is not under a Pentagon contract, according to Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.
S. military's 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
Storgaard said the Maersk Alabama was carrying general cargo, including, most likely, aid supplies for
East Africa.
No action has been taken so far against the pirates, Christensen said.
"There is a task force present in the region to deter any type of piracy, but the challenge remains that the
area is so big and it is hard to monitor all the time," he said. "The area we patrol is over a million square
miles. We can't be everywhere at once."
He said U.S.-flagged ships are not usually escorted by the U.S. Navy unless they request it.
Pirates are changing their tactics and taking advantage of tens of thousands of square miles of open
water where fewer military ships patrol, according to U.S. military officials, as evidenced by more attacks
off the coast of Somalia, south of the seas patrolled by U.S. and coalition ships.
"They [pirates] are going where we are not, they are looking for targets where there is limited coalition
presence," according to a U.S. military briefing document shown to AP.
Christensen said the pirates appear to be using larger ships either to attack, or as a base ship from which
they launch smaller attack ships.
"It appears the pirates are operating in a different fashion," he said. "It's a lot like cops on a beat. The
criminals will go where they're not."
Coalition ships mainly patrol in the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and northern
Somalia as ships come out of and head toward the mouth of the Red Sea.
"Despite increased naval presence in the region, ships and aircraft are unlikely to be close enough to
provide support to vessels under attack. The scope and magnitude of the problem cannot be
understated," according to a news release from the U.S. Navy.
S. Navy warship was about 300 nautical miles away. On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy warned mariners that
pirates were attacking ships hundreds of miles offshore.
The cargo ship is owned and operated by a Maersk subsidiary in Norfolk, Virginia, Maersk spokesman
Michael Storgaard said.
He would not provide any details about the security arrangements on board the Maersk Alabama.
"We have very strict policies on the vessel ... crews are trained to handle these types of situations,"
Storgaard said from Maersk's headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.
He said the company is contacting the crew members' relatives and setting up assistance for them.
"That is at this moment our primary concern," Storgaard said.
The Maersk Line is one of the Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors, but the Maersk
Alabama is not under a Pentagon contract, according to Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.
S. military's 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
Storgaard said the Maersk Alabama was carrying general cargo, including, most likely, aid supplies for
East Africa.
No action has been taken so far against the pirates, Christensen said.
"There is a task force present in the region to deter any type of piracy, but the challenge remains that the
area is so big and it is hard to monitor all the time," he said. "The area we patrol is over a million square
miles. We can't be everywhere at once."
He said U.S.-flagged ships are not usually escorted by the U.S. Navy unless they request it.
Pirates are changing their tactics and taking advantage of tens of thousands of square miles of open
water where fewer military ships patrol, according to U.S. military officials, as evidenced by more attacks
off the coast of Somalia, south of the seas patrolled by U.S. and coalition ships.
"They [pirates] are going where we are not, they are looking for targets where there is limited coalition
presence," according to a U.S. military briefing document shown to AP.
Christensen said the pirates appear to be using larger ships either to attack, or as a base ship from which
they launch smaller attack ships.
"It appears the pirates are operating in a different fashion," he said. "It's a lot like cops on a beat. The
criminals will go where they're not."
Coalition ships mainly patrol in the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and northern
Somalia as ships come out of and head toward the mouth of the Red Sea.
"Despite increased naval presence in the region, ships and aircraft are unlikely to be close enough to
provide support to vessels under attack. The scope and magnitude of the problem cannot be
understated," according to a news release from the U.S. Navy.
Ship carrying 20 Americans hijacked off Somalia
