Pirates of the Indian Ocean

Arrgh, Matey. They be blackards, all. Hang'em from the yardarm. Jack Sparrow, they ain't.

Officer testifies in Kenya against accused pirates
Associated Press

MOMBASA, Kenya — A Navy officer testified in a Kenyan court Friday against 10 Somali men accused of piracy, saying U.S. sailors detained the suspects after firing warning shots that forced their vessel to stop.

Lt. Lucas Michael Grant told the court that the sailors, who are part of an anti-terrorism task force based in Djibouti, detained the 10 Somalis on Jan. 22 in an operation involving U.S. military helicopters and a warship that fired several warning shots.

Grant said the U.S. troops, who were responding to a hijacking report from the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur, tracked down an Indian-based vessel that the suspected pirates had taken over and were using to attack other ships.

Days earlier, the Somalis used the hijacked ship in a failed attack on the MV Delta Ranger, a bulk carrier sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, when it was 200 miles off the eastern coast of Somalia, Grant said.

Here be the Rest of the Yarn.