UK Company Launches Anti-Piracy Boat

Four killed as Somali pirates fight over record ransom

MOGADISHU — At least four people were killed overnight during intense fighting between rival Somali pirates in the town of Harardhere arguing over a record ransom, elders and pirates said Tuesday.

The tension has been high in the central Somali pirate lair ever since an estimated seven million dollars were dropped by a small plane for the release of the VLCC Maran Centaurus, a Greek-flagged supertanker a third of a kilometre long and carrying two million barrels of crude oil.

“The situation is calm this morning but there is still tension between the pirates. Three of them, including a senior pirate leader, were killed so far and three others were injured,” local elder Moalim Abdalla Hasan told AFP. (Source: AFP)

In Yemen, U.S. Faces Leader who puts Family First

SANA, Yemen — The United States is quickly ramping up its aid to Yemen, which Washington sees as a revived new front against Al Qaeda. But one of the most delicate tasks will be managing the relationship with the president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has filled his government with numerous members of his family and who wants to ensure that his son Ahmed succeeds him, Yemeni officials, analysts and Western diplomats say. (source: New York Times)

Maersk hires war ship to protect tanker

Danish shipper A.P. Moller Maersk has hired out soldiers and a warship from Tanzania to protect its fleet in pirate-ridden waters off the coast of Africa, and now other shippers are expected to follow suit.

Maersk hired the warship through former special forces soldiers working for firm Guardian GBS security in December 2008. The ship was charged with protecting the Brigit Maersk tanker from pirates. It is unknown how much the shipping company paid for the service. (source: The Copenhagen Post)

U.S. and U.K. Shut Embassies in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — The United States and Britain shut their embassies in the Yemen capital on Sunday, with the Americans citing unspecified but “ongoing threats by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” the regional branch responsible for the failed Christmas Day effort to blow up a U.S. airliner headed to Detroit.

The closures came a day after a quiet visit to Yemen’s president by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American regional commander, who delivered a message from President Obama of support for Yemen’s unity and counter-terrorism efforts.

In his weekly address on Saturday, Mr. Obama blamed the Al Qaeda branch for the bombing attempt and said that those responsible “will be held to account.” (source: New York Times)

Yemen says Somali pirates seize Yemeni cargo ship

Somali pirates have seized a Yemeni cargo vessel with a crew of 16 and are taking it out toward the Indian Ocean, a Yemeni Defense Ministry website said on Monday.

The vessel, called Al Mahmoud 2, had left Yemen’s southern port of Aden on December 18, with 15 sailors and a captain on board — all Yemenis, the impoverished Arab country’s coastguard told the website. (source: Reuters)

U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen

In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen. A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said. (source: The New York Times)

Cruise Missiles in Yemen?

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said “an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned.” (source: ABC News)

Al-Qaeda Looking to Yemen as Next Base

Citing intelligence reports and intercepted communications, officials said they believe dozens of battle-hardened followers of Osama bin Laden have recently traveled to Saudi Arabia’s poor southern neighbor, joining other Al Qaeda sympathizers there who are attempting to make the remote mountainous province of Ma’rib, west of the capital of Sana, a new sanctuary. (source: Boston Globe)

Sea too large to prevent all piracy

 International naval forces will never be able to completely secure the vast area of ocean where Somali pirates are hijacking ships off East Africa, the commander of the EU Naval Force’s counter-piracy efforts said Tuesday. (source: San Francisco Examiner)