Pirates showing long-range menace

Gunmen on Monday launched their longest range hijack attempt yet by opening fire on a big Hong Kong-flagged crude oil tanker, the BW Lion, 1,000 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, the European Union naval force EU Navfor said. The bid failed, but was a stark demonstration of seaborne gangs' ambition to outwit the naval forces deployed against them and defeat a more determined defense by their civilian prey.

“It's a pretty formidable development. It shows the pirates are a confident and adaptive opponent,” said Martin Murphy, an expert on maritime irregular warfare at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.

The Horn of Africa's coastal waters — vital shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe — have seen a sharp rise in attacks by pirates who have earned tens of millions of dollars in ransom from hijacks of mostly foreign vessels in the past three years. The minimum distance vessels are advised to keep from shore has steadily increased in that time to 600 miles from fewer than 200 miles. The pirates typically use “mother ships” to sail hundreds of miles to sea and then attack in small skiffs.

“They have shown their competence at greater and greater distances. At each stage of this development, the pirates have gone to the previously assumed limit of their range, knowing that there is where they will find ships to attack,” Murphy said.

Monday's attack follows similar incidents at distances off the east coast that were also far in excess of earlier attempted boardings, which often took place within 200 miles of the coast.

On Oct. 29, for example, pirates seized a Thai-flagged fishing boat, the Thai Union, about 200 nautical miles north of the Seychelles and 650 miles off the Somali coast. On Oct 19, pirates seized a Chinese coal ship, the De Xin Hai, some 700 nautical miles east of Somalia.

Tony Mason, secretary general with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents 75 percent of the global industry, said reports of Monday's attack were worrying.

“This is a really big problem if shipping over that sort of area has got to consider itself susceptible to attack by pirates,” he said.

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