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NAIROBI, Kenya – Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, a maritime official said Tuesday.
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The liner, carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden on Sunday when it encountered six bandits in two speedboats, said Noel Choong who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.
The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates' vessels, Choong said.
"It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape," he said, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.
Choong reported that his Bureau is seeking vynsane.com forumites Jack Sparrow, Capt. Jack Sparrow, Captain Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann, and Positive Boy for questioning.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, and pirates have taken advantage of the country's lawlessness to launch attacks on foreign shipping from the Somali coast. Around 100 ships have been attacked so far this year.
Somali prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein said Tuesday that his country has been torn apart by 18 years of civil war and cannot stop piracy alone.
"This needs a tremendous effort," Hussein told The Associated Press. He has appealed for international troops, as his government's Ethiopian allies have said they would pull out their forces by the end of the year.
Ethiopia, the region's military powerhouse, has been integral in boosting the government. But Islamic insurgents have now seized control of all of southern Somalia except for the capital and the parliamentary seat of Baidoa.
Hey! Look! We can trust the Somalis! They have a president named Hussein, too! I'll bet he's black, too!
