For those of you who have not been paying attenshun, the Indian Ocean coast of Africa, specifically, the Gulf of Aden has recently been in the news a lot. Mostly on account of Somali pirates who have been hijacking shipping and holding crews and cargo to ransom. The biggie was a Saudi supertanker, the Sirius Star which was hijacked this last Saturday. Before this, fed up with having to route shipping to avoid these pirates and escalating insurance costs, the US, the EU and several other interested parties have sent warships to patrol these waters. This includes the Indian Navy. Now, it seems that the IN is in the forefront of the action. Just a week ago, the INS Tabar, a Talwar(Krivak III) class frigate joined the fray. (This little beastie carries BrahMos antiship cruise missiles, good for sniping biggies at longish range in a real shooting wuh.) Anyway, them pirates were hassling MV Jag Arnav, a bulk carrier, and the Tabar sent over Marcos. Now, IN Marcos, like marines anywhere are a nasty bunch of people, with a truly unhappy disposition, people you would want on your side if things got rough. Anyway, Jag Arnav sailed on unolested. Stage 2: INS Tabar got into a shooting match with a largish pirate ship and blew her out of the water. Read on here. What amuses me most is the fact that the BBC puts the 'sinks' in quotes. Implying that... the news is unconfirmed..? Or that they are just having trouble believing that anyone apart from the former rulers of the waves (Hail Brittania, join in the chorus please) can get anything done in a shooting match? Time to be somewhat less snotty BBC, remember the Falklands?
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