Pirates seize four ships in four days off the horn of Africa

[Morten]

According to CNN, the toll is up to four ships since saturday. The Sirius Star along with a Chinese grain carrier, a chinese and a thai fishing vessel. This takes the total up to 95 hijackings in 2008 which is more than a 40% increase over 2007 and 950% compared to 2006.

The Norwegian company Odfjell have instructed all their vessels to go south of the Cape to avoid the Aden Gulf.

Pirates grab more ships, captured tanker docked

This is truly disturbing! Something has to be done NOW. We need serious military intervention. The CTF-150 vessels patroling the waters off Somalia are far from enough to ensure the safety of the vessels transitting these waters! These pirates are getting ever more bold and are attacking bigger and faster vessels further from Somalian waters. If this is allowed to escalate even further, it will only be a matter of time before they'll start attacking passenger vessels and other high speed crafts!