MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (Reuters) - SOMALI pirates this week launched their longest- range hijack attempt yet, firing on a big Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker 1,852km east of Mogadishu.The bid failed, but it made clear the seaborne gangs' ambition to outwit naval forces arrayed against them and to defeat a more determined defence by their civilian prey.
Their solution: Master high-tech global positioning system- aided navigational aids and the logistical challenges of refuelling and resupplying their craft in remote waters, so that they can strike farther afield.In taking on bigger challenges, the pirates are also seeking bigger vessels, such as oil tankers, as this ensures a bigger ransom. One analyst explained: "The payment structure is built on a percentage basis."Mr Martin Murphy, an expert on maritime irregular warfare at Washington's Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said that such moves reveal adaptive opponents who have "shown their competence at greater and greater distances".
"At each stage, the pirates have gone to the previously assumed limit of their range, (where they know) they will find ships to attack," he added.Ironically, security improvements aboard ships are partly to blame. Crews are now trained to take a wide variety of measures to resist boarders, buying time so that help can arrive. Steps include installing barbed-wire coils, using fire hoses, sailing in a zigzag pattern and speeding up.Yet, such steps in remote waters are almost useless. Foreign navies are deployed mainly in the Gulf of Aden.As tech-savvy, logistically advanced pirates range farther afield, experts stress that it will be impossible for navies to police the whole western half of the Indian Ocean. v Fresh thinking is needed.
China to boost efforts in fighting Somalia piracy HONG KONG (Reuters) - China is expected to ramp up its naval presence off Somalia and will co-lead the international taskforce fighting piracy off the Horn
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