As we have shown here before, this piracy is jihad-related. What will Obama do? Offer to talk without preconditions with the pirates? “Somali pirates hijack U.S.-flagged container ship,” by Daniel Wallis for Reuters, April 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates hijacked a U.S.-flagged, Danish-owned container ship on Wednesday with 20 American crew on board in the latest of a sharp rise in attacks off the Horn of Africa nation, officials said.
Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program, told Reuters the 17,000 ton Maersk Alabama had been seized off Mogadishu far out in the Indian Ocean, but all its crew were believed to be safe….
In the latest wave of pirate attacks, gunmen from Somalia seized a British-owned ship on Monday after hijacking another three vessels over the weekend.
In the first three months of 2009 just eight ships were hijacked in the busy Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia and the eastern Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal.
Last year, heavily armed Somali pirates hijacked dozens of vessels, took hundreds of sailors hostage — often for weeks — and extracted millions of dollars in ransoms….
On Monday, they hijacked a British-owned, Italian-operated ship with 16 Bulgarian crew on board.
Over the weekend, they also seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug and a 20,000-tonne German container vessel. Interfax news agency said the Hansa Stavanger had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board….
UPDATE 9:25AM: Apparently the U.S. crew has retaken control of the ship!