In First, Private Guards Kill Somali Pirate

New York Times (03/24/10) Cowell, Alan

A pirate was shot and killed by private security guards on March 23 as he and several others tried to hijack a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship in the waters off the coast of Somalia. The incident began when pirates using high-speed skiffs controlled by a mother ship attacked the Panamanian-flagged vessel, the Almezaan, but were repulsed. When the pirates attacked the Almena a second time, they fired their guns at the ship, forcing the private security guards on board to return fire, hitting one of the pirates. A team from a Spanish frigate in the area, the Navarra, boarded the pirate boat and arrested six pirates. The pirate ships were then sunk. The death of the pirate, which is the first ever at the hands of private security guards, could ramp up the fight between pirates and shippers moving goods through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, who are increasingly using private security guards to fend off hijackers.