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HMS Monmouth's Lynx helicopter and boarding party come to the aid of the MV Caravos Horizon, a merchant vessel that had been assaulted by suspected pirates while transiting the Red Sea :
A member of HMS Monmouth's force protection team provides cover during the boarding of the merchant vessel:
HMS Monmouth's Lynx helicopter flies over the MV Caravos Horizon:
HMS Monmouth:
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British forces storm hijacked ship
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 - 02:55 PM
British forces have freed an Italian cargo ship attacked by pirates off Somalia.
The Montecristo was taken by five armed men on Monday. It was carrying a crew of 23 – seven Italians, six Ukrainians and 10 Indians.
Two ships, one British and one American, carried out the raid and 11 pirates were captured.
The Italian foreign ministry said the ship was freed by British forces. Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa plans a news conference with further details.
The ministry expressed great satisfaction in the operation and extended thanks to the British Navy for its role.
Pirates flourish off largely lawless Somalia by attacking passing ships, taking hostages and demanding ransoms to free them and the vessels.
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/...#ixzz1aUqORS9L
Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.
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Originally posted by Goldie fish View PostBritish forces storm hijacked ship
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 - 02:55 PM
British forces have freed an Italian cargo ship attacked by pirates off Somalia.
The Montecristo was taken by five armed men on Monday. It was carrying a crew of 23 – seven Italians, six Ukrainians and 10 Indians.
Two ships, one British and one American, carried out the raid and 11 pirates were captured.
The Italian foreign ministry said the ship was freed by British forces. Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa plans a news conference with further details.
The ministry expressed great satisfaction in the operation and extended thanks to the British Navy for its role.
Pirates flourish off largely lawless Somalia by attacking passing ships, taking hostages and demanding ransoms to free them and the vessels.
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/...#ixzz1aUqORS9L
a job well done, i still wish we could just kill pirates.
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A boarding team from HMS Somerset has liberated a large fishing dhow, which had been taken over by a group of armed Somalis a few days earlier, over 100 miles (160km) off the coast of Somalia.
Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset approaches a pirated dhow off the Horn of Africa
HMS Somerset's gunnery team keeps watch as the boarding party approaches the pirated dhow
HMS Somerset's Merlin helicopter hovers ovehead during the boarding of the pirated dhow
A Royal Marines Commando of HMS Somerset's boarding party guards suspected pirates onboard a fishing dhow off the Somali coast
it's great to see so much military intervention in the area to disrupt these scumbags.
RN and RM - job well done.
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Originally posted by danno View PostHas the marine a carbine variant looks too stubby for reg piece.
From http://world.guns.ru/assault/brit/sa0--l5-e.html'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html
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Originally posted by easyrider View PostBritish equivalent of the M4?
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Like the Shorter Steyr the Cavalry Corps of the Irish Defence Forces Use. Shorter barrel is less cumbersome in the confines of a vehicle.
But BACK TO PIRATES!
Shabaab-Somali pirate links growing: UN adviser
By Jonathan Saul and Camila Reed
LONDON (Reuters) - Cooperation between Somalia's al Qaeda linked militants and pirate gangs is growing as the al Shabaab group becomes more desperate for funding, the head of the U.N.'s counter-piracy unit said on Thursday.
In recent days Kenya launched a cross-border incursion into Somalia to flush out rebels from its frontier area after a series of kidnappings of foreigners in Kenya. The abductions were carried out by gunmen thought to be linked to al Shabaab.
"There is a growing link and growing cooperation between al Shabaab who are desperate for funding and resources with other criminal gangs and with pirates," said Colonel John Steed.
Steed, the principal military adviser to the U.N. special envoy to Somalia and head of the envoy's counter-piracy unit, said pirates were not part of al Shabaab.
"Pirates are one of those potential sources of large amounts of money so there a natural linkage between Shabaab's desire for funding to support their activities and money that pirates are getting from ransoms," he told Reuters Insider TV on the sidelines of a piracy conference in London.
The President of the semi-autonomous Somali state of Puntland Abdirahman Mohamud Farole believed the two had links.
"We are almost sure about that otherwise in the Shabaab held areas pirates will not operate," he told Insider.
A senior Somali commander has said the Kenyan-Somali operation's aim was to rid Kismayu, a port city that serves as the rebels' nerve centre for operations, of the militants.
"We have seen people taken from the coast of Kenya and then facilitated all the way through al Shabaab held areas and delivered to an area held by pirates and negotiated by pirate gangs," Steed told the conference.
"They have been taken there to be used as human shields to prevent attacks from other states."
Analysts and diplomats in the region have warned that Somali pirates were likely to turn to softer targets, such as tourists in Kenya, in response to more robust defence of merchant vessels.
Steed told Reuters that pirates taking ships and their crews hostages for lucrative ransoms would remain their main focus. He said international military forces were looking to target gangs not just at sea, but in air operations and using Somali forces on the ground.
"Clearly the conclusion will be that the pirates when they are forming up on the beaches are at their most vulnerable and that's the point where they need to react," he said.
Farole said Puntland, which has arrested hundreds of pirates in its territory although is struggling with a lack of resources, would back such operations "if required in cooperation with the local Somali authorities".
"Within our limits we will do everything we can but we are appealing to the international community to support us in establishing our marine police force to be operative now," Farole said.
Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.
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Elite commandos storm lawless Somali war zone to snatch tribal leader
British commandos made a dramatic amphibious landing on Somalia’s war-torn shores to seize a tribal leader, the Daily Mail can reveal.
In an extraordinary operation in a lawless area teeming with bandits and pirates, elite Royal Marines launched Viking armoured vehicles from landing craft and pushed several miles inland to pick up the clan chief.
The unprecedented covert landing comes at a sensitive time in the troubled East African country as Al Qaeda-linked groups are training terror recruits and pirates are holding more than 100 hostages after seizing their boats.
The tribal elder, one of the most influential figures in the region, was whisked through bandit country by heavily armed troops from 539 Assault Squadron and taken to a ‘very important meeting’ with MI6 and the Foreign Office aboard a Royal Navy support ship anchored off the coast.
The discussions are understood to have included the location of terror training camps and the seizing of hostages by clansmen operating in the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
The operation raises the prospect of further raids against terror camps and pirate bases.
Special Forces have increasingly focused on Somalia and the Horn of Africa in recent months amid a rise in the number of ships seized by pirates for ransom, the kidnap of Western citizens and the mounting threat of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group Al-Shabaab.
There are also fears that Somalia has replaced Pakistan and Afghanistan as the main area of training for UK-born terrorists.
The U.S. has carried out a series of unmanned drone attacks on terror training camps, but until now there has been no confirmation of British forces operating in Somalia.
It is known that British Special Forces in the region have been involved in gathering intelligence on pirates and on Al-Shabaab, which is suspected of being behind the kidnap of Briton Judith Tebbutt, 56, from a Kenyan island resort last month.
Mrs Tebbutt’s husband, David, 58, was shot dead during the kidnap, which happened after bandits landed by boat at the resort near Somalia’s border with Kenya.
Mrs Tebbutt’s whereabouts are currently not known
The Marines’ raid in July was the first time British troops have conducted a military operation in the troubled territory in 40 years. The swoop was part of Exercise Somaliland Cougar, a mission to train coastguards in Somaliland – a former British protectorate that broke away from failed Somalia – in anti-piracy techniques and meet MPs and tribal leaders.
The Marines, serving on the 60-man Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Cardigan Bay, had come under fire as they sailed near the autonomous Somali region of Puntland, which is in dispute with Somaliland.
But despite the danger, a small unit from 539 Assault Squadron was sent in to pick up the tribal elder for the talks.
Under cover of darkness, they set out from RFA Cardigan Bay, a landing ship dock that allows smaller boats to send troops and equipment to shore.
The landing craft carried two armoured Viking troop-carrying vehicles protected by machine guns and smoke grenades.
The Vikings successfully left the landing craft and headed for their rendezvous with the tribal leader. Each carried up to 12 commandos.
Elite Royal Marines launched Viking armoured vehicles (like the one pictured) from landing craft and pushed several miles inland to pick up the clan chief.
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