U.S. Navy battles pirates off Somalia coast

[Rose Siding]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Two U.S. Navy ships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates Saturday off the coast of Somalia, and one suspect was killed and five others were wounded, the navy said.

The early morning gunbattle ensued after sailors spotted 30-foot fishing boat towing smaller skiffs and prepared for a routine boarding, said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Passengers on the fishing boat then began shooting, and U.S. naval gunners returned fire with mounted machine guns.
...
The Navy said the incident involving the USS Cape St. George and USS Gonzalez occurred at about 5:40 a.m. local time, approximately 25 nautical miles off the Somali coast in international waters.

The Cape St. George, a guided-missile cruiser, and Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, were conducting maritime security operations in the area. They are based in Norfolk, Va.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11233378/

[charlie and algernon]

1. the second barbary war???

:wtf:

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. History repeats itself...

right now we are recycling the Jefferson presidency lately...first our VP shoots someone, now we are battling pirates off the African Coast

[Massachusetts]

2. Navy battles pirates

Yarrrr!!!!!

[CottonBear]

3. CNN now reporting US NAvy returned fire. Navy got 1 pirate. Damn.

CNN says: "Shoulder fired grenade launchers getting Navy's attention."

Crazy shit happening. Paris riots on CNN as well.

:scared:

[tabasco]

4. Beautiful Somalia - a republican paradise !

No taxes !
No gun control !
No big bad federal government !
No labor unions !
Best of all - - no social security !

Why don't all republicans move to this laissez-faire paradise?? :shrug:

[stillcool]

11. Is it online of a route....

for drug-trafficing?

[flamin lib]

6. Piracy world wide is pretty wide spread.

The asian area is the worst, but they're right here in the Caribbean. They come aboard sailing and power yachts, rob the crew and passengers and occasionally cast everyone overboard and steal the vessel.


http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/12/06/sailing.murder/index.html

[Rose Siding]

7. Would the US Navy have apprehended them if they hadn't fired?

It just seems nutty that anyone on a fishing boat would do that.

[Pavulon]

8. Bad Idea

for a 30 foot boat to fire on the us navy in international waters. And an aegis class warship at that.

[TheMightyFavog]

14. You have to admire their balls, though.

It has to take Colossall balls of iron to attack a US Navy cruiser with fishing boats armed with Assault rifles and RPGs.

[Pavulon]

15. Not really

Thankfully they didn't kill some 19 year old kid trying to pay for college. Don't know if they were shooting at a boarding craft or the destroyer. But thankfully none of our guys got killed.

I am impressed that were so stupid and that the Capitan of the destroyer did not sink the boat with its main gun.

[TheMightyFavog]

16. I'd have used the Phalanx

Can you say "Pink Mist?"

[Pavulon]

17. Sounds like

they used only the force needed to disable the boat and stop the attack.

Article does not say if the boat was shooting at the US ship or a boarding boat.

I'm not a navy guy so I'm not sure how that system works.

[Slyder]

9. Pirates may not be a bad thing

One of the premises of the faith of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is that there is a correlation between global warming and a declining number of pirates. More pirates may mean less global warming!

On a more serious note. When piracy is a growth industry, civilizations are often in decline. We would be much better off declaring war on piracy and its causes than a war on terror. We need to help the nations of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean fight pirates. Pirates inhibit trade and give warlords a base. And THAT is a bad thing for civilization.

[Platypus]

10. Call the Darwin Awards

I would have loved to see the US Navy captain's face when this happened. "They did *WHAT*? Can anyone be *that* dumb?" Firing on a US Navy cruiser that can launch more ordnance per second than the weight of your boat, when you have nothing more powerful than a shoulder-launched missile, is practically a form of suicide.

[qazplm]

18. In later news...

the Captain of the Pirate Ship was seen running up to an elephant and kicking it in the balls.

[Earth_First]

12. I love how this is being reported out of Dubai, United Arab Emirates

as in: "See how vested we are in international security..."

[Pavulon]

13. That is

because the us navy operates from the UAE. U.S. Navy docks at the ports of Jebel Ali - which is managed by DP World by the way.

[NVMojo]

19. ...and we were not supposed to take US port security seriously ...HAHA!!

[NVMojo]

20. Curiously, this story came from DUBA via AP!!!!

very interesting!

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Two U.S. Navy ships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates Saturday off the coast of Somalia, and one suspect was killed and five others were wounded, the navy said.

[quaoar]

21. These pirates should have been shot

Anyone in a wooden boat who is stupid enough to attack an Aegis-class American warship deserves to go down with his ship.

[DesertRat]

22. Pirates!

ARRRR!