Okay, so it appears that the Indian frigate may have been a bit hasty when shooting down the supposed "pirate mothership" in the Gulf of Aden. Apparently, there WERE pirates aboard the ship -- the frigate reports that it came under fire from pirates on the deck of the Thai trawler. What the Indian frigate didn't realize is that the trawler had just been siezed by the pirates, and there were still innocent crew members aboard.
One of those crewmembers, a Cambodian, was found adrift but still alive in the water six days later. He was rescued by a passing ship and delivered to a hospital in Yemen. There were apparently 14 crew members aboard the trawler, and they all likely perished along with the pirates, save for the one crew member that was rescued.
One interesting thing to note is that the vessel was supposed to have been a fishing trawler delivering fishing equipment from Oman to Yemen when it was seized. The pirates approached and siezed the trawler in two speedboats, which were subsequently in tow behind the trawler when the Indian frigate encountered it. The Indians who fired upon the trawler reported that the vessel was laden with ammunition. I'm presuming they were able to ascertain this by the tell-tale explosions that would follow an attack by gunfire. I have to ask this burning question: how would a fishing vessel full of fishing equipment also manage to be laden with explosives or ammunition? I find it hard to believe that the pirates would have had the capacity or the time to unload significant quantities of ammunition or explosives off their speedboats. But the Indians claim there were secondary explosions on the vessel.
I can't help but wonder if the supposed "fishing trawler" was truly a fishing trawler at all. Hey, I wasn't there, and I can only go by secondhand reporting from those at the scene, but I have to wonder what kind of fishing equipment could possibly be so explosive. Were the Yemenis who were receiving the shipment going to fish with guns or explosives? That's been done before, but I suspect that more traditional fishing methods are likely in use in Yemen. In other words, nets.
Perhaps the Indians hit a fuel storage tank or something, but I would expect Indian sailors to know the difference between a fuel explosion and a secondary ammunition explosion. Either way, I'm still happy with a group of pirates having been killed. It's a horrible shame that innocent people had to perish also, but I don't begrudge the Indian frigate for defending itself when it came under fire. The trawler's pirates were reportedly armed with RPGs, which could have done some serious damage to the Indian frigate or its sailors. They were justified in defending themselves.
This is my gripe with terrorists, thugs, and pirates: they're indiscriminate. They'll put anyone in harm's way, with no second thought. I can't correlate that the pirates were also Islamic extremists, but with Somalia being a predominantly Muslim place, it stands to reason that they may have been. Regardless, Somalia is a horrible and lawless place, and Islamists are continuously making headway at taking control of the land. It would not surprise me to learn that their movement is funded by the ransom successes of the pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
Keep coming, pirates. The nations of the world are responding and sending warships to meet your challenge, including the Russians. Your reign of piracy will hopefully be short lived, as will you and your ilk. I look forward to reading more about counterattacks on pirate vessels in the Gulf of Aden.
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