Piracy Ticker: Somalia 2, India 1

Peter Cassata | November 20, 2008

The near-daily piracy crisis in the Gulf of Aden continues. After encountering suspicious vessels that turned out to be Somali pirates, an Indian warship sank the pirates' "mothership." The Guardian summarized:

Somali bandits terrorizing the busy shipping routes around the Horn of Africa suffered a rare setback when an Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mothership" after coming under fire in the Gulf of Aden.

The Indian Navy said that its frigate, one of the numerous international warships dispatched to patrol the waters around the Horn of Africa, had approached a suspicious vessel on Tuesday evening. It turned out to be a previously captured ship being used by pirates as a base to launch their speedboats far out to sea.

"The INS Tabar closed in on the mother vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," an Indian navy spokesman said. "But on repeated calls, the vessel's threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it approached."

After a heavy exchange of fire, the pirate ship was destroyed. Two speedboats escaped.

The Times reported that since Tuesday's seizure of a ship carrying grain bound for Iran, two additional boats have also been captured. Pirates have now taken 9 vessels in 12 days:

The surge in hijackings came as Saudi Arabia confirmed that a ransom demand had been made for the freeing of the Sirius Star supertanker, seized at the weekend with her crew of 25 and a cargo of oil worth $100 million.

Two more vessels – a Thai fishing boat with a crew of 16, and a bulk carrier, believed to be Greek, with an unknown number of people aboard – were seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden yesterday.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) described the situation as "out of control." To say the least...