Photographer Veronique de Viguerie spends time with the Central Regional Coast Guard, the main pirate group operating off the coast of Somalia

Abdul Hassan carries a rocket-propelled grenade near a small boat with some of his crew. This pirate group, called the Central Regional Coast Guard, was formed three years ago, has 350 men in its ranks and about 100 speedboats.

In 2008, the group attacked 29 ships, earning $10m (£6m). Abdul Hassan, who pocketed $350,000, arrived with a small crew on a beach near Hobyo, on the border between Galmudug and Puntland states, before going on an attack to another ship

Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images

Abdul Hassan, 39, is nicknamed "the one who never sleeps"

Abdul Hassan carries a rocket-propelled grenade on a small boat with some of his crew

The Central Regional Coast Guard in the waters off Somalia

From Hobyo's beach, three different ships captured by the pirates can be seen. The one pictured is Japanese, and was attacked in September. The ship and its crew will remain there until the end of the negotiations between the pirates and the ship's insurance company. The Ukrainian ship MV Faina is also nearby, but is too far out to sea to be seen from the beach

On Wednesday October 29 2008, the Somalian president gave the greenlight for foreign troops to attack pirates within Somalian territory. In response, pirates are getting ready for the fight. A convoy of five trucks, each carrying five boats, goes through Galcayo on its way to Hobyo to supply the pirates

This Hobyo Branch store in Galkayo is supplying the pirates with food, drink and cigarettes. They call the owner to order what they need; then a truck goes from Galkayo to Hobyo with the items and sells them to the pirates for twice the normal price, partly contributing the country's inflation

Galkayo is in the centre of Somalia, near the states of Hobyo and Puntland, and also near Ethiopia. Despite its strategic location, the city remains very poor, unemployment is very high and violence is part of everyday life. Pirates have a relatively high standing and are starting to build themselves big houses and businesses with their money. Now they represent the dream of success for many of the men living in Galkayo

Due to the security risks in Somalia, visitors require private escorts of armed men at all times to avoid being attacked by the different militias operating in the area. Fifteen armed men were required as escorts for the photographer, Veronique de Viguerie

Persia & Pirates

"After travelling more than 4,000 maritime miles an Iranian warship entered the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian ships against pirates," reported the Iranian state radio, but gave no further details.

An unnamed official said the gulf was an international area and that Iran's armed forces would "carry out any decision made by their superiors".

The Iranian force joins ships from the EU, US, India, Russia, Malaysia and others which are already patrolling in the area.

China has also said it is considering sending a defensive force to the Gulf.

In October, Iran paid a ransom to free the crew of a captured merchant ship, and an Iranian-operated cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat was seized in November.

Pirate attacks are a regular occurrence in the Gulf of Aden, with many countries blaming the breakdown of law and order in Somalia.

World leaders have called for greater action to deal with the problem and last week, the UN approved a resolution allowing foreign troops to pursue pirates on land in Somalia.

The Russian Approach To The Somali Pirates

by James Dunnigan
December 20, 2008

The Russian frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless), was dispatched on September 28th in response to the capture of the Ukrainian freighter Faina with a crew of 21 people and 2,320 tonnes of military hardware that reportedly included battle tanks and armoured vehicle spares, while on its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasawas, on September 25th, 2008. The cargo was destined to the South Congo Government.

In recent months, a multinational taskforce based in Djibouti has been patrolling parts of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

French naval commandos have taken action against pirates who seized two sailing vessels with French citizens aboard and arrested a dozen suspects. They were brought to France and are awaiting trial on charges of hijacking, hostage-taking and armed robbery, which carry life sentences.

Russia is now planning to send more warships to the Somali coast, along with some commandos and a particularly Russian style of counter-piracy operations. In other words, the Russians plan to go old school on the Somali pirates, and use force to rescue ships currently held, and act ruthlessly against real or suspected pirates it encounters at sea.

This could cause diplomatic problems with the other nations providing warships for counter-piracy operations off the Somali coast. That's because the current ships have, so far, followed a policy of not attempting rescue operations (lest captive sailors get hurt) and not firing on pirates unless fired on first. Russia believes this approach only encourages the pirates.

Russia is planning on bringing along commandoes from Spetsgruppa Vympel. These are hostage rescue experts, formed two decades ago as a spinoff from the original Russian army Spetsnaz commandos. This came about when various organizations in the Soviet government decided that they could use a few Spetsnaz type troops for their own special needs. Thus in the 1970s and 80s there appeared Spetsnaz clones called Spetsgruppa. The most use of these was Spetsgruppa Alfa (Special Group A), which was established in 1974 to do the same peacetime work as the U.S. Delta Force or British SAS. In other words; anti-terrorist assignments or special raids. It was Spetsgruppa Alfa that was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1980 to make sure the troublesome Afghan president Amin and his family were eliminated from the scene (killed.) Survivors (members of the presidential palace staff) of the Spetsgruppa Alfa assault reported that the Spetsnaz troopers systematically hunted down and killed their targets with a minimum of fuss. Very professional. The surviving Afghans were suitably impressed. Spetsgruppa Alfa now belongs to the FSB (successor to the KGB) and number about 300 men (and a few women.) At the same time Spetsgruppa Alfa was established, another section of the KGB organized Spetsgruppa Vympel. This group was trained to perform wartime assassination and kidnapping jobs for the KGB. The FSB also inherited Spetsgruppa Vympel, which is a little smaller than Spetsgruppa Alpha and is used mainly for hostage rescue.

Meanwhile, piracy has been a growing problem off the Somali coast for over a decade. The problem now is that there are hundreds of experienced pirates. And these guys have worked out a system that is very lucrative, and not very risky. For most of the past decade, the pirates preyed on foreign fishing boats and the small, often sail powered, cargo boats the move close (within a hundred kilometers) of the shore. During that time, the pirates developed contacts with businessmen in the Persian Gulf who could be used to negotiate (for a percentage) the ransoms with insurance companies and shipping firms. The pirates also mastered the skills needed to put a grappling hook on the railing, 30-40 feet above the water, of a large ship. Doing this at night, and then scrambling aboard, is more dangerous if the ship has lookouts, who can alert sailors trained to deploy high pressure fire hoses against the borders.

Few big ships carry any weapons, and most have small crews (12-30 sailors). Attacking at night finds most of the crew asleep. Rarely do these ships have any armed security. Ships can post additional lookouts when in areas believed to have pirates. Once pirates (speedboats full of armed men) are spotted, ships can increase speed (a large ship running at full speed, about 40+ kilometers an hour, can outrun most of the current speed boats the pirates have), and have fire hoses ready to be used to repel boarders. The pirates will fire their AK-47 assault rifles and RPG grenade launchers, but the sailors handling the fire hoses will stand back so the gunmen cannot get a direct shot.

Since the pirates take good care of their captives, the anti-piracy efforts cannot risk a high body count, lest they be accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes or simply bad behavior. The pirates have access to hundreds of sea going fishing boats, which can pretend to fish by day, and sneak up on merchant ships at night. The pirates often operate in teams, with one or more fishing boats acting as lookouts, and alerting another boat that a large, apparently unguarded, ship is headed their way. The pirate captain can do a simple calculation to arrange meeting the oncoming merchant vessel in the middle of the night. These fishing boats can carry inflatable boats with large outboard engines. Each of these can carry four or five pirates, their weapons and the grappling hook projectors needed to get the pirates onto the deck of a large ship. These big ships are very automated, and at night the only people on duty will be on the bridge. This is where the pirates go, to seize control of the ship. The rest of the crew is then rounded up. The pirates force the captain to take the ship to an anchorage near some Somali fishing village. There, more gunmen will board, and stand guard over crew and ship until the ransom is paid. Sometimes, part of the crew will be sent ashore, and kept captive there. The captive sailors are basically human shields for the pirates, to afford some protection from commando attacks.

There has always been the option of a military operation to capture the seaside towns and villages the pirates operate from. But this would include sinking hundreds of fishing boats and speedboats. Hundreds of civilians would be killed or injured. Unless the coastal areas were occupied (or until local Somalis could maintain law and order), the pirates would soon be back in business. Pacifying Somalia is an unpopular prospect. Given the opprobrium heaped on the U.S. for doing something about Iraq, no one wants to be on the receiving end of that criticism for pacifying Somalia. The world also knows, from over a century of experience, that the Somalis are violent, persistent and unreliable. That's a combination that has made it impossible for the Somalis to even govern themselves. In the past, what is now Somalia has been ruled, by local and foreign rulers, through the use of violent methods that are no longer politically acceptable. But now the world is caught between accepting a "piracy tax" imposed by the Somalis, or going in and pacifying the unruly country and its multitude of bandits, warlords and pirates.

The piracy "tax" is basically a security surcharge on maritime freight movements. It pays for higher insurance premiums (which in turn pay for the pirate ransoms), danger bonuses for crews and the additional expense of all those warships off the Somali coast. Most consumers would hardly notice this surcharge, as it would increase sea freight charges by less than a percent. Already, many ships are going round the southern tip of Africa, and avoiding Somalia and the Suez canal altogether. Ships would still be taken. Indeed, about a third of the ships seized this year had taken precautions, but the pirates still got them. Warships could attempt an embargo of Somalia, not allowing seagoing ships in or our without a warship escort. Suspicious seagoing ships, and even speedboats, could be sunk in port. That would still produce some videos (real or staged, it doesn't matter) of dead civilians, but probably not so many that the anti-piracy force would be indicted as war criminals.

This sort of bad publicity does not bother the Russians as much as it does other European nations and the United States. Russia got lots of bad press for its brutal, but effective, counter-terror operations in Chechnya. Same with last Augusts invasion of Georgia, which was basically a punitive operation, mainly intended to intimidate the Georgian government. That worked too, despite lots of hostile rhetoric from the U.S. and European nations. If the Russians go old school on the Somali pirates, it will probably work. The Somalis are vicious and clever, but not stupid. Somalis and Russians speak the same language of violence, and the Russians carry a bigger stick. The world will complain, then enjoy the benefits of a piracy free Somali coast.

China & Pirates

China has been rapidly beefing up its navy with new destroyers, submarines and missiles. Naval officers have even been talking about building an aircraft carrier that could help the navy become a "blue-water" force — a fleet capable of operating far from home.

China Navy's destroyers, the Haikou, top left, and the Wuhan, bottom left, and supply ship the...

China Navy's destroyers, the Haikou, top left, and the Wuhan, bottom left, and supply ship the Weishanhu, right, are moored at port before leaving for the Navy's first oversea operation from Sanya, southern China's Hainan province Friday, Dec. 26, 2008. On Friday, warships armed with special forces, missiles and helicopters will sail for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)

Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, said the naval buildup and the mission to Somalia are the latest signs that China is no longer willing to rely on the U.S. or other foreign navies to protect its increasingly global interests.

"China has not been dissuaded from entering the field," Roy said. "That leaves open the possibility of a China-U.S. naval rivalry in the future."

Roy predicted China's move would alarm Japan and some in South Korea because both countries have long-standing territorial disputes with China. But he said most Southeast Asian countries may see China's involvement in the anti-piracy campaign as a positive thing. It would mean that China was using its greater military might for constructive purposes, rather than challenging the current international order.

India, another longtime rival of China, would likely welcome the Chinese naval presence off Somalia for the short term, said C. Uday Bhaskar, a former naval commander and retired director of India's Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses. He doubted it would upset the strategic balance.

China's military has not said how long the mission would last, but the state-run China Daily newspaper recently reported the ships would be gone for about three months.

The mission will likely offer Chinese sailors invaluable on-the-job training, according to Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence company. The mission will be complex, with crews having to do refueling, resupply and repairs far from home amid the constant threat of pirate attacks.

The waters will also be crowded with naval ships from around the world, testing the Chinese ships' abilities to communicate effectively with other vessels in a common mission that has little central organization.

Chinese Navy sailors march past a warship at port before leaving for the Navy's first oversea...

Chinese Navy sailors march past a warship at port before leaving for the Navy's first oversea operation from Sanya, southern China's Hainan province Friday, Dec. 26, 2008. On Friday, warships armed with special forces, missiles and helicopters will sail for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)

The Chinese will very likely monitor the way foreign forces, "especially U.S. warships, communicate with each other and with their shipborne helicopters," the Stratfor report said.

A NATO task force to the Gulf of Aden was recently replaced by a European Union flotilla with four to six ships patrolling the area.

About a dozen other warships, including U.S., German, and Danish ships, are in the region as part of a separate international flotilla based in Bahrain and engaged in anti-terrorism operations. Several individual nations, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Malaysia and India, also have vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

The China Daily on Friday quoted Rear Adm. Du Jingchen, the mission's chief commander, as saying a total of 1,000 crew members will be on the three Chinese ships.

"We could encounter unforeseen situations," Du was quoted as saying. "But we are prepared for them."

First blood

On Wednesday, 17, nine pirates armed with guns overtook the Chinese ship Zhenhua 4 owned by China Communications Construction Co. and registered in the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.

Captain Peng Weiyuan sent a distress message to the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as he saw the pirates approaching. The bureau quickly alerted the international naval force, which dispatched two helicopters and a warship.

The 30-member crew used Molotov cocktails and a high-pressure water pipe to stop the pirates, then barricaded themselves inside their living quarters.

The helicopters arrived at the scene 90 minutes later and fired at the pirates, forcing them to flee the ship. There were no injuries among the crew, during the five-hour combat.

The warship and one of the helicopters that responded were Malaysian and the other helicopter was part of the Combined Task Force-150, which includes the United States, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Britain, Pakistan and Canada. Malaysia cooperates with the task force.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, pirates aim weapons on the deck of the Chinese...

Pirates aim weapons on the deck of the Chinese ship "Zhenhua 4" in the Gulf of Aden, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Xinhua)

Meanwhile, in Yemen
The Indian navy handed over 23 pirates arrested in the Gulf of Aden Saturday, 13th, after they threatened a merchant vessel in the lawless waters off the Yemeni coast, a Yemeni security official said.

The Indian sailors boarded two pirate boats and seized what was described as a substantial arms cache and equipment at the time. The security official said the pirates included 12 Somalis and 11 Yemenis.

The handover took place in the southern port of Aden, and the pirates were to be interrogated and charged in court. He stressed that Yemen has the right to try Somali pirates because their arrest took place inside Yemeni waters.

The day After
China said Thursday, 18th, that it plans to dispatch warships to join an international effort battling rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia — the Chinese navy's first major mission outside the Pacific.

"We are making preparations and arrangements to deploy naval ships to the Gulf of Aden for escorting operations," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

The Global Times, a newspaper published by the Communist Party, said the fleet could consist of two cruisers armed with guided missiles, special forces and two helicopters and one large supply ship.

For the Chinese navy, which has mainly concentrated on the country's coastal defense, it would mark the first time it has been involved in multilateral operations in modern times, said Christian LeMiere, a senior analyst for Jane's Country Risk, a security intelligence group.

Though China has a huge global commercial maritime presence, the People's Liberation Army Navy has primarily focused on defending China's coast and, until now, limited operations abroad to port calls, goodwill visits and exercises with other navies.

"They're on an actual mission, which could potentially involve combat, albeit of low intensity. That's a real difference," said Lyle Goldstein, director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. "This is not a dangerous mission — actually, it's the perfect coming out party for the Chinese navy."

China has never sent military forces overseas other than as part of a U.N.-mandated peacekeeping mission, according to Bonnie Glaser, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. A Foreign Ministry announcement Thursday that China was making preparations to deploy warships followed a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote this week authorizing nations to conduct land and air attacks against pirates.

From January to November, 1,265 Chinese ships have passed through the area — an average of three to four vessels a day, he said. About 20 percent of them have come under attack.

This year, there have been seven cases of pirate hijackings involving Chinese ships or crews, he said, including Wednesday's attack.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton said the U.S. welcomed China's move. "We look forward to working with the Chinese both bilaterally and multilaterally on this challenge to international security," he said.

China's warships would join ships from the U.S., Denmark, Italy, Russia and other countries in patrolling the Gulf of Aden, which is one of the world's busiest waterways and has become infested with heavily armed Somali pirates.

In this Dec. 23, 2008 file photo, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, left, watches German...

Dec. 23, 2008: German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, left, watches German frigate Karlsruhe sailing out of the harbor of Djibouti. A helicopter from the warship, which is part of the EU mission protecting civil ships against pirates at the horn of Africa, chased away pirates who were trying to board an Egyptian ship Thursday, Dec. 25, off the coast of Somalia. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

The Begining of the End

UN Security Council Authorizes Land and Air Attacks on Pirate Bases Along Somalia's Coast

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS December 16, 2008 (AP)

Eight suspected Somali pirates at the Law Courts in Mombasa Kenya Thursday Dec. 11, 2008. (AP Photo)

On the same day Somali gunmen seized two more ships, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases on the coast of the Horn of Africa country.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on hand to push through the resolution, one of President George W. Bush's last major foreign policy initiatives.

Rice said the resolution will have a significant impact, especially since "pirates are adapting to the naval presence in the Gulf of Aden by traveling further" into sea lanes not guarded by warships sent by the U.S. and other countries.

The council authorized nations to use "all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia" to stop anyone using Somali territory to plan or carry out piracy in the nearby waters traversed each year by thousands of cargo ships sailing between Asia and the Suez Canal.

That includes the use of Somali airspace, even though the U.S. appeased Indonesia, a council member, by removing direct mention of it, U.S. officials said.

Somalia Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Jama, whose government asked for the help, said he was "heartened" by the council action. "These acts of piracy are categorically unacceptable and should be put to an end," he said.

The resolution sets up the possibility of increased American military action in Somalia, a chaotic country where a U.S. peacekeeping mission in 1992-93 ended with a humiliating withdrawal of troops after a deadly clash in Mogadishu, as portrayed in the movie "Black Hawk Down."

The commander of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet expressed doubt last week about the wisdom of staging ground attacks on Somali pirates. Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters it is difficult to identify pirates and said the potential for killing innocent civilians "cannot be overestimated."

Rice played down the differences between the State Department and Pentagon, telling reporters that the U.S. was fully committed to preventing pirates from establishing a sanctuary.

"What we do or do not do in cases of hot pursuit we'll have to see, and you'll have to take it case by case," she said. "I would not be here seeking authorization to go ashore if the United States government, perhaps most importantly, the president of the United States, were not behind this resolution."

Pirates have hijacked more than 40 vessels off Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline this year. Before the latest seizures, maritime officials said 14 vessels remained in pirate hands — including a Saudi tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil and a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other heavy weapons. Also held are more than 250 crew members.

A member of the Dutch special forces stands guard near the bridge of Dutch cargo ship MV Jumbo...

A member of the Dutch special forces stands guard near the bridge of Dutch cargo ship MV Jumbo Javelin as it passes near the Gulf of Aden on Monday, Dec. 8, 2008.
The Dutch warship De Ruyter, seen in the background, was escorting the cargo ship through the Gulf of Aden, which has become the world's top piracy hotspot this year. Pirates have made an estimated $30 million hijacking ships for ransom this year, seizing 40 vessels off Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline.(AP Photo/Tom Maliti, file)

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna, Austria-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said Tuesday that it is important for nations to jointly confront pirates.

"Regional cooperation is essential," Costa said. "A few years ago, piracy was a threat to the Straits of Malacca (in Southeast Asia). By working together, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand managed to cut the number of attacks by more than half since 2004."

Kenyan Vice President, Kalonzo Musyoka speaks during the opening of the International Conference on Piracy around Somalia at an hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008.
Sitting from left, Charges Petre, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for Somalia, United Nations Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdalla and Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula, right.
(AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

Kenyan Vice President, Kalonzo Musyoka speaks during the opening of the International Conference on...