Somali pirates capture arms-laden ship

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia's notorious pirates have staged perhaps their most brazen attack yet, seizing a Ukrainian ship full of arms, including dozens of battle tanks, and Russian and American naval ships were in hot pursuit, maritime and diplomatic officials said Friday.

The ship was seized Thursday about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia, and it is feared that the heavy weapons could fall into the hands of insurgents who are wreaking havoc on a country teetering on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. However, unloading the tanks is likely to be beyond the capacity of the pirates or the insurgents, experts said.

It was unclear whether the pirates who seized the 530-foot-long cargo ship Faina on Thursday knew what it carried.

The hijacking, with worldwide pirate attacks surging this year, could help rally stronger international support behind France, which has pushed aggressively for decisive action against Somali pirates.

Russian navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press that the missile frigate Neustrashimy left the Baltic Sea port of Baltiisk a day before the hijacking to cooperate with other unspecified countries in anti-piracy efforts. But he said the ship was then ordered directly to the Somalia coast after Thursday's attack.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Yury Yekhanurov, meanwhile, said the hijacked vessel Faina was carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. He said the tanks were sold to Kenya in accordance with international law. According to Andrew Mwangura, the program coordinator of the Seafarers' Assistance Program in Kenya, the armaments were going to be offloaded in Mombasa, Kenya.

A Kenyan government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, confirmed the East African nation's military had ordered the tanks and spare parts. The tanks are part of a two-year rearmament program.

"We're concerned," Mutua said. "This is a big loss for us."

But, he added, "at least we have insurance."

"These pirates are getting bolder ever day," said Mwangura, whose organization tracks pirate attacks. "They are now going to use these weapons as a bargaining chip."

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's Web site, there were 21 people aboard, including 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and a Latvian.

At the Pentagon, two defense officials said a warship was tracking the Ukrainian ship but declined to provide details.

The Navy says the 5th Fleet, which includes the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and several support ships, was in the region to "deter destabilizing activities and ensure a lawful maritime order in the Arabian [Persian] Gulf, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman and Gulf of Aden."

Pirate attacks worldwide have surged this year and Africa remains the world's top piracy hot spot, with 24 reported attacks in Somalia and 18 in Nigeria this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center.

The pirates are often former fishermen who have turned to the more lucrative work of plying the seas with binoculars and rocket-propelled grenades. They travel in light speedboats, deployed from a mother ship far out at sea. They have attacked everything from sailing yachts to oil tankers, sometimes as far out as 300 miles from shore. Pirates even tried to attack an American naval-supply ship earlier this week. The American ship fired warning shots and the pirates fled.

Somali officials say the pirates are growing in numbers, with more than 1,000 gunmen at their disposal, and they have evolved into a sophisticated organized-crime ring with their headquarters along the rocky shores of northern Somalia. There is even a pirate spokesman (who could not be reached on Friday).

One Somali official who asked not to be identified described the pirates as an oceangoing "mafia" and said they had netted millions of dollars that they use to buy fancy cars and big houses.

After Somali pirates took two French citizens captive aboard a luxury yacht and helicopter-borne French commandos then swooped in to rescue them, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on other nations to move boldly against pirates. In June, the U.N. Security Council — pushed by France and the United States — unanimously adopted a resolution allowing ships of foreign nations that cooperate with the Somali government to enter their territorial waters "for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea."

A Western diplomat in Kenya told The New York Times, "it was most worrisome" that the seized ship might be carrying smaller armaments, machine guns, mortars or light artillery, which could be easily funneled to insurgents battling the government.

In the past week, insurgents linked to Somalia's ousted Islamist movement have mounted attacks on government forces in the capital, Mogadishu. Dozens of civilians have been killed and thousands are fleeing again.

Somalia has been enmeshed in chaos for 17 years, since the central government collapsed and clan warlords carved the country into fiefdoms. The fighting, however, has intensified since December 2006, when Ethiopian troops invaded the country and overthrew a grass-roots Islamist movement that controlled much of Somalia.

Ethiopian and American officials said the Islamists were sheltering al-Qaida terrorists, and the American military has helped the Ethiopians hunt down Islamist leaders.

The U.N. World Food Program has said the conflict and recent drought have pushed millions of Somalis to the brink of famine. More than 3 million people, nearly half the population, need emergency food to survive. The constant hijackings by pirates on the high seas have threatened the pipeline of food into the country.