US navy captures Somali pirates

BBC - US navy captures Somali ‘pirates’

The US navy says it has captured a number of suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia.The guided missile destroyer USS Winston S Churchill went in pursuit of a suspect vessel after receiving a report of piracy, the navy said.

When other efforts failed, the Churchill fired warning shots to bring the boat to a halt.

There have been numerous attacks by pirates off Somalia, some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The US navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and patrols the Indian Ocean, received reports of “an attempted act of piracy” approximately 50 miles (80km) off the Somali coast on Friday, it said in a statement.

Not sure why the scare quotes, but this is good news.

Correction: Bill at INDC Journal and commenter Scott (below) note that the BBC’s use of quotes here indicate precision and a concern for accuracy. Fair enough.

Trackbacks & Pings

  1. Pirate's Cove on 22 Jan 2006 at 6:46 pm

    Trademark Infringement…

    There will be several bloggers who will be recieving court papers shortly, trademark infringement. Blogs for Bush and commentor rbj need to be a little more cautious in what they write. Such words as avast and aarrrrrr may only be…

  2. CDR Salamander on 23 Jan 2006 at 3:48 am

    But will they hang the skurvy dogs by the yardarm?…

    We’re talking pirates again. Here are a few options.

    USS Winston Churchill seizes pirates off Somalia. This should Make the Commissar happy….

  3. Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator on 23 Jan 2006 at 7:02 am

    26 men held by U.S. for possible piracy…

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. sailors boarded a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean…

Comments

  1. rbj wrote:

    Arrrgh, indeed matey.

    Posted 22 Jan 2006 at 1:09 pm

  2. Scott Simmons wrote:

    I don’t think those were scare quotes, I think they were plain ordinary attribution quotes. Viz., the writer or editor was wanting to make clear that the phrase “an attempted act of piracy” was used by their source for the story, in those exact words …

    Posted 22 Jan 2006 at 7:43 pm

  3. Bubblehead wrote:

    Commissar: It’s clear the U.S. Navy took your advice.

    Posted 22 Jan 2006 at 10:37 pm

  4. John the Marine wrote:

    Ahoy there *******! Heave to! and prepare to be borded! (Sailors have all the fun.)

    Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 1:19 pm

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