Pirates seize U.S. freighter, hold captain for ransom

[Louis VI the Fat]

Underscoring the high stakes involved, France’s navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia last week by other pirates, but one of the hostages was killed, along with two of the bandits. Three pirates were captured. In Paris, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Jean-Louis Georgelin dismissed the notion of coordination between the French and Americans on the two incidents.

Hopefully, this is untrue or soon to be remedied. All the major nation's navies patrolling this area must coordinate their efforts to be truly effective.

It is my understanding that there is plenty of international coordination between at least the EU and US navies. And probably with others as well.

I think Jean-Louis Georgelin is referring to the fact that the three French military actions over the past few months themselves have been French solo efforts, without foreign cooperation.

Do we have to relearn the lessons every time there's a naval war? Last time the enemy was underwater and the area was the North Atlantic! SORT THIS OUT

In a rare show of sanity, the EU placed its mission in the Somali waters under command of the British navy, headed by Phillips. It always pleases me when European nationalist sentiment is cast aside for sanity and reason. Let everybody do what they're good at.

We were kinda hoping you lot would know just what to do though...


To link this to another thread, Norway joined the EU for this mission. Excellent. More bizarrely, the Swiss navy joined as well...