SOS as pirate motherships take to the high seas seeking cargo and

THEY use "motherships" to launch flotillas of snatch-squad speedboats, are armed with grenade launchers and AK-47s, have the best radar and are ruthless in pursuit of their prey.

They are Somalia's pirates: organised gangs of seaborne gangsters so efficient in their audacious crimes that the international shipping community is now calling on the Royal Navy to take them on.

Global piracy is now one of the biggest threats to world shipping, far eclipsing the risk from terrorism, and Somalia - a war- torn realm in almost complete anarchy - has fast become one of the world's pirate hot spots. Since March 15 this year, there have been 32 attacks off Somalia. In 2004, there were just two attacks, in 2003, three, and in 2002, six. In the first nine months of 2005, there were 205 pirate attacks worldwide. Murders by pirates are also rising. In 2004, 30 crew members were killed.

In 2003, the figure was 21.

The favoured tactic of the Somali pirates is to capture the vessel and crew, take it to one of their safe havens around Mogadishu and hold the hostages for ransoms of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Today, some seven vessels and more than 100 sailors, from countries including Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Ukraine, are held captive by the pirates pending the ransom payment. When the ransom is received the ship, cargo and crew are all freed.

From November 5 to 8, there were five attacks on shipping off Somalia. One attack, on November 7, succeeded in capturing a ship carrying sugar, bound for Yemen with a crew of 22 on board.

The most disturbing recent attack was on the passenger cruise liner, the Seabourn Spirit, on November 5. Three rocket propelled grenades hit the luxury liner. Bands of pirates in two speedboats also raked the ship with automatic fire. The pirates were finally repelled when security officers on the Seabourn Spirit deployed a sonic boom device.

It can permanently damage hearing at 300 metres.

Geoffrey Greaves, a former major in the British Army's intelligence corps and manager of the private company International Maritime Security, said the assault on the Seabourn Spirit was "hugely significant" as it was the first recorded attack by pirates on a cruise ship. Cruise liners have been attacked by terrorists before, but never pirates.

"It is a shift in their modus operandi, " said Greaves. "And it indicates that there will be more." Greaves explained that pirates are now using motherships to target vessels which have taken the precautionary manoeuvre of sailing no closer than 100 nautical miles to the Somali coast. Pirate leaders have taken to mooring huge boats out at sea, which can then disperse small snatch squad speedboats to hunt merchant ships.

The pirates are divided into three main groups from three factions controlled by warlords. Each gang has a port, or a section of a port, under their control where they take captured boats and crews pending payment of ransoms. One recent ransom amounted to GBP300,000.

It was an unusual move for the pirates to target the Seabourn Spirit as nearly all cruise liners have security officers, usually ex-members of the armed forces, such as the Royal Marines.

"The frightening thing is that staying away from the coast is now no longer a defence, " said Greaves.

Recently, the crew of the MV Semlow, carrying UN food aid to Somalia, was overpowered by gunmen at sea and held captive for three months.

The Sunday Herald also interviewed a number of exBritish intelligence officers who are now key figures in global maritime security regarding the piracy threat off the horn of Africa. One said:

"These men are not just gangs of robbers. They are collecting money from ransom to get more and more guns and ammo to carve out their bosses' personal fiefdoms in Somalia. It's possible that the increase in piracy is indicative of these warlords readying themselves for a possible civil war with the Somali government, which is re-arming and preparing to take back the country."

There have also been lots of attacks on local fishermen who have become casualties of the warlords' internecine rivalry.

Fishermen who have been granted fishing rights in a patch of water controlled by one warlord are often targeted by rival warlords who dispute the fishing rights.

Another former British military intelligence officer who has travelled the world advising shipping lines on antipiracy security measures said that the attacks off Somalia were not believed to be linked to terrorists. "Where there is an overlap between terrorism and piracy, it is in southeast Asia, " he said. He pinpointed the Mallaca Straits - the main shipping route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean - as the key hot spot for acts of piracy linked to Islamist terrorists. "There's an absolute double-up there, " he said.

"Pirates and terrorists are getting into bed together in this part of the world in the same way that the IRA climbed into bed with criminals in Northern Ireland."

Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau which represents global shipping and is endorsed by the UN's International Maritime Organisation and has observer status with Interpol, called on British and American naval vessels to defend merchant shipping from Somali pirates. His organisation monitors all pirate attacks and issues bulletins to world shipping.

"These Somali pirates are basically hostage-takers, " he said. "They realise that shipping owners are prepared to lose their ship or cargo but not their crew. Local militia men realise that this is a very lucrative revenue stream.

"They have cottoned on to the fact that this is a great money- spinner as there are no naval vessels in the area. For pirates, this is like shooting fish in a barrel. Somalia has no infrastructure. The answer is for outside help from coalition vessels - the British, American and Italian navies - due to the huge rise in the number of incidences. If there is no action then the attacks will only increase and Somalia will become a centre for international criminality at sea which will further destabilise the area.

"The ransom money goes to warlords. Without the help of the Royal Navy and the US Navy the situation will spiral out of control - if it hasn't done so already." He said British navy vessels stationed around the Indian Ocean should move closer to Mogadishu to provide cover for merchant shipping.

Andrew Linnington of the UK maritime union Numast said the waters off Somalia should be declared a war zone.

"It's got to the stage where it's anarchy, " he said.

The International Maritime Bureau has made a direct request to the Royal Navy to intervene in east African waters. The Ministry of Defence promised that if there were navy vessels in the area and intelligence of piracy then the Royal Navy "would undertake action in pursuit of pirates and help to deal with the problem".

UK shipping minister Stephen Ladyman is supporting a move by the International Maritime Organisation for the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to deal with Somali piracy. UK ships are now under advice to keep a minimum of 150 nautical miles from the Somali coast.

neil. mackay@sundayherald. com

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