U.S. Navy returns fire

U.S. Navy returns fire
on suspected pirates
1 killed, 5 wounded off Somali coast
after group shoots at boarding party

The U.S. Navy engaged suspected pirates earlier today in the Indian Ocean, killing one and wounding five, after the suspects brandished rocket-propelled grenade launchers and opened fire on a boarding party.

The USS Cape George, a guided-missile cruiser, and the USS Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, were involved in coalition maritime security maneuvers with the Royal Netherlands Navy when the suspected vessel, a 30-foot fishing boat towing two skiffs, was spotted 25 nautical miles off the coast. Boarding teams from the Gonzalez were approaching the vessel to make a routine check when observers on both Navy ships spotted the suspects brandishing RPGs.

The pirates opened fire, which was returned from both U.S. ships, resulting in 1 death and a fire being ignited aboard the fishing vessel. Boarding teams took twelve suspects into custody, including 5 who were wounded, and confiscated a RPG launcher and automatic weapons. No U.S. Sailors were injured.

The Somali coast has become notorious for attacks on shipping by pirate gangs believed to be affiliated with local warlords. The International Maritime Organization has warned ships to steer clear of the coastal region which saw attacks jump to 35 in 2005 from two the previous year.

Pirate attacks have hindered the delivery of drought relief assistance to the area, with ships hijacked and brought to port where their cargo is stolen and their crews held for ransom.

Last November, the Miami-based Seabourn Spirit, carrying 312 passengers and crew was the first cruise ship targeted for a high-seas assault by Somali pirates. As WorldNetDaily reported, the ship was able to outrun and outmaneuver the pirates, but was forced to harbor because of an unexploded missile that had been fired through the hull into the passenger compartments.

Not all are convinced the Somali pirates are simple economic criminals, given the long involvement of al-Qaida in the region and evidence of the terror group's efforts to acquire it's own "navy."

In March of 2005, a Philippine military report based on interrogations of captured terrorists said two al-Qaida-linked groups were training members in scuba diving in preparation for seaborne attacks. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network had one of its first major successes in Somalia, the ambush of U.S. peacekeeping forces that resulted in the slaughter of 19 American troops in 1993 in the famous "Blackhawk Down" Mogadishu raid.

The report pointed to increasing collaboration among the Muslim terrorists in other areas, including financing and explosives.

As WND first reported based on information gathered by the premium online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the threat of Islamist terrorism on the high seas is worldwide – not limited to one region.

WND also exclusively reported that al-Qaida had purchased at least 15 ships, creating a veritable terror armada.

U.S. intelligence services believe scores of acoustic sea-mines, found to have disappeared from a naval base in North Korea by a U2 spy plane, could be aboard these bin Laden "terror ships" and that Western luxury liners and aircraft carriers were the targets of this sea jihad.