An Iranian security team proves once again that the best defense against pirate attack, is a well-armed security team in this undated video.
9 Somali pirates are captured by what appears to be Iranian shipboard security forces. 6 pirates are allegedly killed in the attack.
Please note: We are unable to confirm the source of the video, the ship involved, or timeframe of the attack.
Rob Almeida is Partner/CMO at gCaptain. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1999 with a B.S in Naval Architecture and spent 6.5 years on active duty as a Surface Warfare Officer. He worked for a year as a Roughneck/Rig Manager trainee on board the drillship Discoverer Americas. Rob is an accomplished sailor and competes in the US Australian Rules Football League. Rob can be reached at rob@gcaptain.com and via Google Plus
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Cut thier balls off then send them home as a warning to the othermangusn pirates
This must be 2 videos spliced together as no way in the world would pirates be able to get that close and do that much damage to the bridge and ship and still be alive with so much firepower strapped to a box boat bridge wing.
The video also shows several Somalis with no injuries yet for the amount of empty cases of 7.62 .50 – there would of been a bloodbath, I’m also assuming they launched the FRV to then take prisoners???
Not all is true in this video in my eyes – sorry
Nick
Yeah, it’s pretty much impossible to gain any sort of understanding about what actually transpired here… hence the disclaimer.
Hopefully, they get a nice show trial before the Iranians hang them. Piracy should be handled the way it was handled in the past – hanging from the yard arm.
That is how you make sure they wont do it again. They should have shot their boat out from under them and left them for the sharks.
Nice job to the Iranians! I bet these scumbags have already been tried and executed. They wont be doing this again. The US could take a lesson here.
This is rather puzzling. Whilst it is generally assumed that Iran has their own way of dealing with things, neither the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy nor the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN) would normally allow film footage of the use of disproportionate use of force which is an offence under international convention. I’m not taking sides here but it’s hard to describe a belt fed machine gun as a weopon for firing warning shots. In our experience, Somali pirates avoid anyone returning fire, so the amount of damage done to this wheelhouse under considerable return fire from the bridge wing would indicate a level of commitment that us unusual if not utterly unbeleivable.
Furthermore, the damage to the bridge front from sea level or even deck level would be almost impossible bearing in mind the container stacks on the foredeck immediately forward of the bridge windows. Also gunfire doesn’t usuallly empty chart table drawers.
In my humble opinion this ship had already been taken by pirates hence the trashed wheelhouse, then recovered by the Iranians who took the pitates then staged a show of firepower at imaginery targets for the camera. It may even be possible to identify the ship – if anyone can be bothered.
I’m sure the guards had a bit of fun taking turns with the belt fed gun and I doubt the pirates are enjoying much of a vaction at the moment. Frankly, they get what they deserve and attacking merchant ships is pot luck. At best they get a cup of tea and a telling off from coalition forces then landed back in Somalia at worst they find they’ve had the misfortune to come up against the like of the Russians (Moscow University was a bad day for the bad guys) or the Iranians as in this case.