Be Careful Which Ships You Pirate

While American media has been keeping tabs on the Ukranian ship, containing Russian tanks enroute to Kenya (and allegedly ultimately destined for the Sudan), which was pirated, attracting the attention of the U.S. Navy, a South African newspaper (The Times) has an article on what’s occurring on a different pirated ship:

Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.

Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”

The vessel’s declared cargo consists of “minerals” and “industrial products”. But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist rebels.[…]

The ship is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, a state-owned company run by the Iranian military. […]

The ship set sail from Nanjing, China, at the end of July. According to its manifest, it was heading for Rotterdam where it would unload 42500 tons of iron ore and “industrial products” purchased by a German client.

What interesting cargo our friend Ahmadinejad seems to enjoy playing with…..