United States and Somalian Hijacking Crisis

Here is a collection of articles that chronicle the United States' entry into the Somalian pirate & hijacking crisis. This begins with the rescue of Maersk Alabama's Captain Richard Phillips on Sunday, April 12, 2009.

Navies to guard undersea cable from Somali pirates Foreign navies have agreed to protect a vessel installing an undersea high-speed Internet cable from pirates off the coast of Somalia, a Kenyan minister said on Thursday. (Reuters, 04/16/2009)

Clinton Calls for Crackdown on Somali Pirate Bases (Update1) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for authorities in Somalia to act against land bases that pirates use to attack ships and said the U.S. will seek ways to track and freeze assets of the brigands. Clinton said she has assigned a team of U.S. diplomats to press the Somali government and leaders of Puntland, a semi- autonomous region in Somalia, to take action against the land bases. (Bloomberg, 04/15/2009)

French raid pirate ship, US seeks to freeze assets The U.S. and its allies battled Somalia's pirates on two fronts Wednesday, with French forces seizing a bandit mother ship and Washington seeking to keep the marauders from their spoils. Another U.S. freighter headed to port with armed sailors aboard after pirates damaged it with gunshots and grenades. (Associated Press/Yahoo News, 04/15/2009)

Somali pirates in brazen challenge to Obama and allies as they hijack FOUR more ships... and open fire on a fifth Somali pirates have brazenly hijacked four more ships in the Gulf of Aden over the last 24 hours and opened fire on a fifth. The pirates captured two trawlers yesterday, a cargo ship named the M.V. Irene overnight, and a second cargo ship named the M.V. Seahorse today. This afternoon a NATO official said a band of pirates had opened fire on a fifth cargo ship - but it managed to escape. (UK MailOnline, 04/14/2009)

U.S. Military Considers Attacks on Somali Pirates’ Land Bases The U.S. military is considering attacks on pirate bases on land and aid for the Somali people to help stem ship hijackings off Africa’s east coast, defense officials said. The military also is drawing up proposals to aid the fledgling Somalia government to train security forces and develop its own coast guard (Bloomberg 04/13/2009)