Israelis are being hired to fight off Somali pirates—and they’re succeeding.
An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits and drove them away, the commander said Sunday.
Cmdr. Ciro Pinto told Italian state radio that six men in a small white boat approached the Msc Melody and opened fire Saturday night, but retreated after the Israeli security officers aboard the cruise ship returned fire.
[…] Saturday’s attack occurred about 200 miles (325 kilometers) north of the Seychelles, and about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Somalia, according to the anti-piracy flotilla headquarters of the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa.
Pinto said the pirates fired with automatic weapons, slightly damaging the liner, and tried to put a ladder on board. But he said they were unable to climb aboard.
The commander said his security forces opened fire with pistols and the ANSA news agency said the pistols had been kept in a safe under the joint control of the commander and security chief.
And the kicker in this story: Reuters excluded the information that it was an Israeli security team that saved the day. And they added this ridiculous statement from some idiot in Kenya, who must be on the pirates’ payroll:
“Having weapons on a passenger or merchant ship is dangerous. They should have used other means to shake off the pirates, like a loud acoustic device,” said Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Sea Farers Assistance Program.
Leave it to Reuters to recommend the cause of least resistance.
Neither the BBC nor CNN could find room in their articles to mention that it was an Israeli security firm.
This is one of the reasons the world is so biased against Israel. Because the media report only the bad news, none of the good. Although I’m sure there are many anti-Israel critics who think it’s simply awful that a group of young Israeli ex-soldiers fought off Somali pirates.
Well this should lead to more jobs for Israeli security firms. I doubt that this will be the last we hear of this story.
Israeli’s possess advanced military and security skills. The Italian cruiseliner clearly made a wise decision with their due diligence of hiring the Israeli security firm. Really weird that major news agencies falied to mention the security firm’s Israeli origin.
Well, I saw this story on AOL and they did give credit to the Israeli security firm. For some reason the cruise line would not name the specific outfit involved.
These guys don’t lack guts. Pistols against automatic rifles is very bad odds.
Sometimes the pirates have RPGs too. Next time how about some .30 rifles?
That cruise ship had 1500 people on it. Imagine the ransom the scum could demand for that large a number of prisoners. I read that the ship was headed towards Aqaba. There may be other attacks on it.