Sailors stalemate Somalis in 6-hr battle with molotovs.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

With molotovs and water cannon, Chinese sailors who refuse to surrender stalemate Somali pirates for long enough that a Malaysian ship's helicopter can arrive to machine-gun the Somalis into retreating.

Keeping low to avoid being shot, a sailor lights a Molotov cocktail before throwing it at Somali pirates trying to board his ship.

He and his crewmates were expecting trouble and had prepared dozens of the makeshift grenades to repel an invasion.

Their cargo vessel was attacked in the Gulf of Aden by pirates using speedboats and armed with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.

The attack occurred a day after Beijing said it was considering sending warships to the area to help battle piracy.

Another picture shows crew members gathered on deck who tried to repel the boarders with water cannon and beer bottles.

Despite their best efforts the nine pirates clambered aboard after tying up alongside.

The 30 Chinese crew then locked themselves in their accommodation area - which includes their sleeping rooms, mess rooms and recreation area - to prevent the bandits from entering the ship itself.

The ship's captain, Peng Weiyuan, told Chinese TV that the crew used 'water cannon, self-made incendiary bombs, beer bottles and other missiles to fight the pirates' during the five-hour stand-off.

'Thirty minutes later, the pirates gestured to us for a ceasefire then the helicopters from the joint fleet came to our help.'

The helicopters had been sent from a Malaysian warship after responding to the distress call sent to the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.

After blasting the pirates with gunfire, the bandits clambered back into their speedboats and made off back to their coastal hideout.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said the Zhenhua 4 was attacked at 0443GMT on Wednesday. It belongs to China Communications Construction Co., and is registered in the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.

The assault occurred in the same area where a Malaysian-owned tugboat and a Turkish vessel were seized Tuesday, said Noel Choong, who heads the piracy reporting centre.

Choong said the bureau quickly sought help from a multi-coalition naval force, which dispatched the helicopters and a warship to the area.

'Two helicopters arrived at the scene first and helped deter the hijacking. They fired at the pirates, forcing them to flee the ship. Nobody was injured,' he said.

'The Chinese ship is very fortunate to have escaped. This is a rare case where pirates have successfully boarded the ship but failed to hijack it,' he added.

Somali pirates have hijacked over 40 vessels off Somalia's coastline this year.

Many of the seizures took place in the Gulf of Aden that lies between Somalia and Yemen - one of the world's busiest waterways with about 20,000 ships sailing through each year.

Wednesday's attempt is the latest in a rising number of attacks by Somali pirates on Chinese vessels. In November, a Chinese fishing vessel was attacked while off the coast of Kenya.

Spurred by widespread poverty in their homeland, which hasn't had a functioning government for nearly two decades, Somali pirates are evading an international naval flotilla to intercept huge tankers, freighters and other ships to hold for ransom.

Including Wednesday's violence, Choong said there have so far been 109 attacks this year off the coast of Somalia, with 42 hijackings.

Fourteen vessels are still with pirates with a total of 240 crew members as hostages.

He said since last Friday, there were also three other reported attacks in the vicinity on a Singapore oil tanker, Italian cargo ship and a Greek vessel, but all managed to escape after intervention by the multicoalition force.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to authorise nations to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases on the coast of Somalia.

'The area is just too wide to patrol. Hopefully with the UN resolution, there will be more firm action to stop this menace,' Choong said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told the Security Council that China was considering sending warships to the Gulf of Aden, where they would join ships from the US, Russia, Denmark, Italy and other countries.

'China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near future,' He said, according to a transcript of his comments posted on the Foreign Ministry's website.

A naval researcher, Professor Li Jie, told the state-run China Daily newspaper that dispatching China's navy would increase its prominence on the world stage.

'Apart from fighting pirates, another key goal is to register the presence of the Chinese navy,' he said.

China's navy is mainly intended for coastal defence and has little experience operating away from its home ports.

[Chris OFarrell]

Why didn't the helicopter engage and destroy the Pirates as they ran? I'm guessing it had heavy machine guns and the pirates were in some speedboats or other light craft....

Anyway, the PLA isn't exactly doing much and they have plenty of troops, why not start stationing a squad on each of these ships with heavy weapons?

[Ryan Thunder]

Why didn't the helicopter engage and destroy the Pirates as they ran? I'm guessing it had heavy machine guns and the pirates were in some speedboats or other light craft....

Anyway, the PLA isn't exactly doing much and they have plenty of troops, why not start stationing a squad on each of these ships with heavy weapons?

Indeed. If a few sailors can hold off HMG-armed pirates, I think a few real soldiers ought to tear them to ribbons.

[Starglider]

Why didn't the helicopter engage and destroy the Pirates as they ran? I'm guessing it had heavy machine guns and the pirates were in some speedboats or other light craft....

Maybe they only had door guns. It must be difficult or impossible to hit a fast jinking speedboat with door guns while chasing it. Or perhaps the helicopter was trying to follow the speedboat back to its base ship, but it ran out of fuel before its quarry did?

[The Yosemite Bear]

yeah it's not like the more civilzed neighbors of Somolia have apaches/hinds......

begins droolin ath the thought of rockets vs. speedboats...

[CJvR]

Advertisment for hiring Chinese crews!

[Lord of the Abyss]

Why didn't the helicopter engage and destroy the Pirates as they ran? I'm guessing it had heavy machine guns and the pirates were in some speedboats or other light craft....

Maybe they only had door guns. It must be difficult or impossible to hit a fast jinking speedboat with door guns while chasing it. Or perhaps the helicopter was trying to follow the speedboat back to its base ship, but it ran out of fuel before its quarry did?

The story mentions that the pirates had "heavy machine guns" on their boats. They could have been afraid that the pirates might actually win a gun duel.

[Solauren]

Nice to see someone knows how to handle, or at least hold off, pirates.

Things are going to get really violent in that area in the near future.

[chitoryu12]

Why didn't the helicopter engage and destroy the Pirates as they ran? I'm guessing it had heavy machine guns and the pirates were in some speedboats or other light craft....

Maybe they only had door guns. It must be difficult or impossible to hit a fast jinking speedboat with door guns while chasing it. Or perhaps the helicopter was trying to follow the speedboat back to its base ship, but it ran out of fuel before its quarry did?

The story mentions that the pirates had "heavy machine guns" on their boats. They could have been afraid that the pirates might actually win a gun duel.

It depends. How are the guns usually configured on the helicopters and pirate speedboats? There's a chance that the choppers could have found an angle that would put the boats in their gunsights while keeping out of the HMGs' firing angle.

Though I consider the reporting rather dubious, as I've often seen "heavy machine gun" thrown onto any gun bigger than an AK-47. It's entirely possible that the heavy machine guns were no bigger than M60s, at most equal to what the helicopters would probably be armed with.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Well, Soviet 14.5mm HMGs are frequently found in Somalia, so I assumed they'd managed to mount a few of those on the attacking boats.

[Knife]

Shouldn't matter, Helo's have altitude on the boats and thus range. No reason why the birds shouldn't have had the advantage on them other than fuel.

[Darksider]

Well, Soviet 14.5mm HMGs are frequently found in Somalia, so I assumed they'd managed to mount a few of those on the attacking boats.

can a 14.5 mm machine gun actually damage an attack helo?

I was under the impression that they were better armored than that

[weemadando]

Well, Soviet 14.5mm HMGs are frequently found in Somalia, so I assumed they'd managed to mount a few of those on the attacking boats.

can a 14.5 mm machine gun actually damage an attack helo?

I was under the impression that they were better armored than that

A 14.5mm machine gun will rip any fucking helo you care to name to shreds, especially if said helo is trying to get close enough to engage with it's own door-gun.

[Winston Blake]

Well, Soviet 14.5mm HMGs are frequently found in Somalia, so I assumed they'd managed to mount a few of those on the attacking boats.

can a 14.5 mm machine gun actually damage an attack helo?

I was under the impression that they were better armored than that

I don't see any mention of actual attack helicopters.

[Darksider]

A 14.5mm machine gun will rip any fucking helo you care to name to shreds, especially if said helo is trying to get close enough to engage with it's own door-gun.

here I was thinking the round was less potent that it actually was. Upon further doing further research I can see that the 14.5 mm cartridge is used in the soviet ZPU series of anti-aircraft guns

Here I was thinking they were just using dinky-ass machine guns like those 7.62 mms mounted on pickup trucks or something.

[Rogue 9]

14.5 mm is a little less than double the diameter of 7.62. Of course it's a potent round; it's fucking huge.

I can't see it being man-portable, though, Newton's Laws being what they are.

[Chris OFarrell]

Nothing said they had a 14.5mm gun...and frankly if the pirates had that kind of firepower, or RPG's or something, I couldn't see the crew possibly resisting for as long as they did.

And trying to aim a heavy machine gun from a small speedboat as its bouncing around on the waves is going to be hell compared to a door gunner on a chopper, especially a solider rather then some wanabe pirate.

And finally, the fact is when the two choppers arrived, their gunners DID succeed in driving the pirates off, they didn't open up with 14.5 mm guns -nothing in fact says they had fire returned. Really it sounds like the choppers arrived, fired some warning shots and the pirates disengaged.

[Glocksman]

The Soviet 14.5mm machine gun round is bigger and more powerful than the US .50 (12.7mm) BMG cartridge.

IOW, it'd be a weapon for helicopter crews to fear in the hands of trained personnel.

[Chris OFarrell]

The Soviet 14.5mm machine gun round is bigger and more powerful than the US .50 (12.7mm) BMG cartridge.

IOW, it'd be a weapon for helicopter crews to fear in the hands of trained personnel.

True, but its also going to be damn near impossible to hit a helicopter with when bolted on to a speedboat as it bounces around at high speed. A helicopter hovering 500 feet above it is going to be a far more stable and accurate platform to fire back from with an M-60 or M2 or something similar.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It seems like the Malaysians just weren't interested in killing them, since I glanced back at the pictures of the boats and it didn't seemed they'd had anything large enough with them to mount a 14.5mm. But they certainly could use one, observe here for one of the most insane Somali vehicles ever:



That is a technical consisting of a Toyota Land Cruiser Hi-Top with a 14.5mm HMG somehow fitted to it.

[K. A. Pital]

I can't see it being man-portable, though, Newton's Laws being what they are.

The KPV is man-portable, just takes a lot of men to move. It's overweight for a manportable version, but quite a few of them were still produced regardless.

[Zixinus]

You really have to wonder, with the highest population density of the world, why can't these ships get a few guys with assault rifles. Surely, compared to the ship being hijacked, the cost is negligible. I mean, the crew defended themselves by molotov cocktails. Surely a few guys trained to use an assault rifle and some grenades can do a better job.

Oh, as for the 14.5x115mm : its one of the most fucking powerful non-explosive round in the world that can be considered a bullet.

[Edi]

You really have to wonder, with the highest population density of the world, why can't these ships get a few guys with assault rifles. Surely, compared to the ship being hijacked, the cost is negligible. I mean, the crew defended themselves by molotov cocktails. Surely a few guys trained to use an assault rifle and some grenades can do a better job.

You should have read some of the previous subjects. Weapons on a ship mean that entry to non-military ports is automatically denied under international maritime regulations. So that option is out.

It could be different if soldiers were stationed on the ships as a security complement, but that presents problems as well unless some modifications to the existing treaties governing this are worked out.

[Coyote]

They'd have to have a complictaed system where armed troops are placed on the ship while at sea, ride with the ship through the danger area, then disembark at another control point once through the danger area. In other words, it would involve a ship or platform waiting at each end of the danger area, and means to equip all possible ships with troops.

It adds a lot of cost & complexity.

[Feil]

Can the SLJ Badass Motherfucker of the Week be awarded to an entire crew simultaneously?