Originally Posted by Airborne Aircrew
...Quicker, easier and cheaper to sink them on the spot.
Yes, that always works.
...But Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) piracy reporting centre, said the vessel it attacked was a Thai-operated fishing boat which had been seized by Somali pirates off Yemen on November 18.
"We can confirm that the incident has taken place. One Thai crew member died during the attack by the Indian navy, on the same day the vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates," he told AFP.
Choong said that one Cambodian crewman was rescued by passing fishermen four days later, but 14 other crew on the Kiribati-registered vessel are still missing.
The downed boat was owned by the Thai-based Sirichai Fisheries and was being held by heavily armed pirates at the time the Indian frigate, the INS Tabar, opened fire. Sirichai Fisheries confirmed the deep sea trawler Ekawatnava 5 had been destroyed and said the crew were tied up when it opened fire...
Many more captives have been killed by their supposed 'protectors' than by the Somali pirates themselves. Moreover, trigger-happy forces have killed more captives than pirates. And please, no one quote that bogusly misleading video about the Russians knowing how to treat pirates appropriately. All their captives have either been released or handed over to the few countries willing to prosecute them.
Despite what any gung-ho keyboard warriors feel, this is not a shooting war. It is a constabulary operation mandated by international law and governed by national ROE, much akin to the police enforcing the law on the UK mainland. Similar rules apply to the gathering of evidence and the use of firearms.