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April 15, 2009
Good for France
Drapeau Français / French Flag, originally uploaded by Cyril Plapied.
People love to rip on France, but occasionally they do something that even the biggest francophobe ought to like. So, hopefully they get some praise for their capture of a pirate "mother ship" off Somalia:
The French forces initially responded to a distress call from a Liberian-flagged container ship, the Safmarine Asia, which came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire from two small pirate skiffs Tuesday night. A helicopter from the Nivôse arrived on the scene and observed the skiffs retreating and returning to the “mother ship” — actually, a 30-foot boat — which was being used as a floating base about 460 miles off the Somali coast, according to a statement by the European Union’s Maritime Security Center.
The French forces then mounted their assault on the boat on Wednesday, and found a range of firearms and equipment on board as well as the suspected pirates. The Nivôse took the boat and the skiffs in tow and is now on its way to the port of Mombasa, Kenya, the Maritime Security Center said. The detainees are expected to be sent to France to be prosecuted.
Now look. Somebody's probably going to say, "those were just a bunch of knuckleheads in a boat. France ought to be defeating them." However, ask yourself what Italy thinks about how easy that is!
entry no. 1352
Posted at April 15, 2009 03:26 PM