It’s difficult to feel sorry for armed Somali pirates who routinely hijack ships in international waters, holding crew and cargo for ransom.
Some pirates get lucky and make off with millions in cash in return for the safe passage of the ship’s crew and cargo.
But these days most Somali pirates end up sleeping with the fishes.
The Somali pirates in the photo above are all deceased now according to a Somali pirate spokesman.
The “young men” had the misfortune of boarding a Russian oil tanker last week (the MV Moscow University carrying 86,000 tons of oil). The pirates held the tanker’s crew of 23, plus the oil, for ransom.
Obviously the Russians feel some kind of way about their oil. So the Russian troopers who stormed the ship decided not to take names, ranks or serial numbers. They simply lined the pirates up on the deck, shot them each point blank in the head and dumped their bodies over the railing — this, according to the pirate spokesman.
But the Russians have an entirely different version of the events that took place last week. The soldiers say the pirates were “released” on the open sea and they simply never made it back to shore.
But the pirate spokesman disputes the Russians:
“The Russians never released the young men. Instead they shot them point-blank range then loaded their lifeless bodies back on the boat,” he said.
