Somali pirates hijack the New Year…

..Sort of!  Pirates around the Gulf of Aden rang in the New Year by hijacking a total of four ships this week, according to CNN.

Pirates off Somalia have hijacked two more vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the European Union naval force said Saturday — the third and fourth vessels they have captured this week.The British-flagged Asian Glory was seized off Somalia late Friday, the naval force said. The nationality of the pirates was unclear, because the hijacking happened outside of the force’s operations area, it said.

Fighting back against pirates

Military.com: posted CNN video of security companies and new defense mechanisms set to aggressively combat pirates.

3.5 million paid to Somali hijackers of Spanish ship

Al Jazeera reports that pirates have freed a Spanish ship hijacked six weeks ago in the Indian ocean, allegedly in exchange for 3.5 million dollars.

On a related note: the Nigerian News Service on why nations should not negotiate with hijackers and kidnappers.

Somali pirates and Islam: natural allies?

Last year, we saw one major wave of Somali pirate attacks on tankers and other ships traversing the region.  In December, analysts were warning that, in its weakened state, Somalia may become a new safe haven for militant jihadis as well as pirates and other international criminals.

Around that same time, in a particularly ironic move the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab  “vowed” to hunt down and attack the pirates who hijacked a Muslim-owned Saudi oil tanker.

However, analysts have posited the idea that in fact the al-Shabaab extremists are in collusion with the pirates and have sought to take a share of any ransom gained. 

Now, UPI writer Claude Salhani suggests that Somali pirates are natural allies of radical Islam:

U.S. Navy warships supported by helicopter gunships tracked four Somali pirates and their American captive in the Horn of Africa throughout the weekend as American negotiators tried to obtain the release of the hostage.

Local militias, many of them adherents of strict Islamist theology, offer a fertile breeding ground to al-Qaida and its affiliates. If and when the day Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida begin to feel the pressure in their current safe haven, the region around the Horn of Africa will look very enticing.