Tag Archives: somalia

Just when you thought the Red Sea was a nice place again

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On Saturday 25th March the Italian Navy Maestrale class frigate, ITS Espero, joined the EU Naval Force off the coast of Somalia. Odds are, they are going to need it, and a few minesweepers.

Saudi Naval forces along the Hodeida coast have found and cleared a number of Houthi-placed sea mines.

From Al Arabiya:

Saudi and Yemeni naval engineers cleared Iranian-made mines which Houthi militias planted along the coast of the Hodeida area.

Mines were swept by the water currents to the sea so the coalition forces had to look for them and remove them to protect fishermen and oil tankers in international waters.

Few days ago, a mine blew up killing a number of fishermen and injuring others.

The largest number of mines was planted along the coasts in north and south Hodeida with technical help from Iranian and Hezbollah experts who entered Yemen for this particular task, according to the Yemeni legitimate army.

Meanwhile, it’s apparently open season on Somali refugees encountered at sea, with 42 reportedly killed off the Yemeni coast near Hodeida in a helicopter-borne attack. Word on the street is that the chopper came from allies of the recognized Yemeni government (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have all reportedly used AH-64s in the conflict), while other sources pin it on the Houthi who are lacking in helicopter gunships.

And, to further amp up regional tensions for mariners, Somali pirates recently returned from retirement due to bad fishing grounds have reportedly hijacked a dhow in the vicinity of Eyl, a city in northern Somalia that was once a hub for maritime piracy. Local authorities suggest that they may intend to use the small vessel for hijacking a merchant ship further offshore.

And the beat goes on…

PMCs Vs Somali Pirates

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http://www.liveleak.com/e/5e2_1333668975

 

Not a lot of background info here. Is being purported to be a group of Private Military Contractors aboard an unidentified merchant vessel off the Somali Coast. At about 40 seconds into the video you see a small fast boat approach danger close and attempt to board or at least menace the much larger merchie. A team of 2-4 PMCs armed with semi-automatic AR-15 platforms engage the small boat extensively and drive it off. Note the PMC’s sandbagged defensive position, nomex gear, and other interesting pieces of kit. Also it looks like they have a non-lethal LRAD set up, although you cannot tell if it is being used or not.

 

Once Upon a time in Somalia

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From Foreign policy

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/17/once_upon_a_time_in_mogadishu

When the great Arab explorer Ibn Battuta landed on Mogadishu’s shores in 1331, he was greeted with a feast fit for a king. Hundreds of camels were slaughtered daily to feed the flourishing port city, where a man could eat for ten. The sultan, clad in silk and fine Jerusalem cloth, was followed by a procession of trumpets and colorful canopies upon which golden birds perched.

How times have changed in Somalia. Today, centuries of European colonization and political strife, coupled with interludes of devastating drought and flooding, have created a failed state that’s become a haven for lawlessness. For years, Somalia was passed between foreign powers: first the Portuguese, then the British, then the French and Italians. Upon its declaration of independence in 1960, the country’s artificially drawn borders proved incapable of anything resembling stability. Now, Somalia remains in a constant state of conflict.

Crazy stuff

Of Cardinals and SEALS

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Great article about the use of Cardinal Devices in place of HUMINT in Somalia by US Navy SEALS/NSWC in the past decade

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/10/military-seals-horn-of-africa-al-qaida-terrorists-103011w/

One night in November 2003, beneath the moon-washed waters off Somalia’s northern coast, a small, dark shadow slipped away from the attack submarine Dallas and headed toward the shore.

The smaller shape was a 21-foot-long submersible called a SEAL delivery vehicle.

Launched from a tubular dry deck shelter on the sub and designed to infiltrate Navy SEALs on covert or clandestine missions, the SDV carries its crew and passengers exposed to the water, breathing from their scuba gear or the vehicle’s compressed air supply. Aboard were a handful of SEALs on a top-secret special reconnaissance mission into a country with which the U.S. was technically not at war.

The SEALs grounded the SDV on the ocean bottom and pushed away from it, taking with them the centerpiece of their mission, a specially disguised high-tech camera called a Cardinal device.

Unbeknownst to them, during the previous 24 hours, their mission had been the subject of Cabinet-level debate in Washington and had almost been canceled until President George W. Bush gave the go-ahead.

Now they were conducting what a special operations source with firsthand knowledge of the operation referred to as “a long swim through some of the most shark-infested waters in the world” toward the coastline that loomed ominously ahead of them. The hard part was just beginning.  Click Here for the Full Story.