Pirates who hijacked a crude oil tanker off the coast of Kenya are approaching a Somali port, the U.S. Navy said Monday.
The Sirius Star — a crude “super tanker” flagged in Liberia and owned by the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco company — was attacked on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.
“It was attacked more than 450 nautical offshore of Mombasa. This means that the pirates are now operating in an area of over 1.1 million square miles. This is a measure of the determination of the pirates and … a measure of how lucrative piracy could become,” Campbell said.
Campbell said the Navy does not expect to dispatch a vessel to aide the super tanker because it does not have dangerous weapons aboard like the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms that was seized by pirates on September 25.
Ships are patrolling the area where most of the attacks have happened in the past but this points out how ineffective patrolling is in dealing with the pirates. The most effective way to deal with them is to attack their bases in Somalia and destroy their boats. We clearly have a force that is capable of doing that, but so far there is a lack of will in dealing with the pirates. That has only emboldened them as this attack points out.
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