Europe launches airstrikes on Somalia to uproot pirate base

This March 2010 file photo shows a boarding party from the EU NAVFOR French warship FS Nivose on Somali pirate skiffs off the Somali coast. (EU NAVFOR/AP/File)

This is the first time the European-led naval expedition, Operation Atalanta, has attacked a pirate base on Somali territory.

By Scott Baldauf, Staff Writer / May 15, 2012

CSMonitor

At sea, Somali pirates have taken a beating as increased European naval patrols have helped cut the number of pirate hijackings in half.

Now, the European Naval Force patrolling the waters off the Gulf of Aden and along the Somali coastline have launched air attacks on known pirate supply bases on land, destroying fuel barrels, boats, trucks, and other supplies. This was the first time the EU-led force had attacked pirate targets on land, although exact locations of the attacks was not announced.

"This action against piracy is part of a comprehensive EU approach to the crisis in Somalia, where we support a lasting political solution on land," The Associated Press quoted Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton, as telling reporters.

If you added up all the ways in which commercial shipping has to protect itself from possible pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, from insurance to private security guards to avoiding Somali waters altogether, the ticket would come to $7 billion annually. This would include, of course, the $160 million paid last year in ransoms to Somali pirates. Small wonder, then, the patience of the European naval contingent has run out.

(More here.)