Now 700 nautical miles these little jackass's are willing to go to hijack a ship , A big increase from the 400 or so they were willing to go before .
Why the shipping companies do not demand the right to fully arm their ships with high powered guns to defend themselves , is mind numbing !
BEIJING (Reuters) - The hijacking of a Chinese coal ship in the Indian Ocean shows Somali pirates are extending their reach beyond the Gulf of Aden and the Somali coast, shippers said as traders worried that more coal ships could become targets.
The De Xin Hai, carrying about 76,000 tons of coal from South Africa to the port of Mundra, in Gujarat, India, was hijacked about 700 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia on Monday, the European Union's counter-piracy force said.
The ship could be brought to Haradheere, a pirate stronghold, or Hobyo, both on the central part of Somalia's Indian Ocean coastline, pirates told Reuters.
"This shows that the pirates are expanding their operations," said an official at the China Shipowners' Association in Beijing.
"The Indian Ocean is very big, and too hard to defend. The Gulf of Aden is a more limited area."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters in Beijing that his government had "actively started rescue operations" for the ship, which has a crew of 25. He declined to give details but observers said they expected the issue to be resolved diplomatically.
"The ship was apparently hijacked some 700 nautical miles from the coast, which shows the distance the pirates are now able to operate as well as potentially the effect of the naval forces in the Gulf," said Arthur Bowring, of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association.
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