In 2010, pirates captured 49 ships, four more than in 2009, and as of Jan. 24 were holding 24 vessels and their crews for ransom off the Somali coast.

They carried out more attacks "across a larger geographic area in 2010, managed to overcome limitations on their activity by periods of bad weather" by using bigger "mother ships" capable of riding out monsoon storms "and increased their capacity for holding hijacked ships," the global security consultancy Stratfor reported.

"These two trends point to increased sophistication and capability on the part of Somali pirates," the Texas organization concluded in a Jan. 31 assessment.

Over the last year, the most dramatic improvement in the pirates' capabilities has been their ability to strike farther into the Indian Ocean, far from their initial area of operations in the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen.

"This trend has accelerated as the foreign naval presence in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia has expanded while higher situational awareness among merchant ships in the same area has made piracy there less profitable," Stratfor observed.

The pirates have moved further east to the waters off the Indian subcontinent and south down the coast of East Africa as far as Mozambique, 2,500 miles away.

On Dec. 5, the maritime marauders seized the Bangladeshi-flagged MV Jahan Moni off southern India nearly 1,500 miles east of Somalia. Twenty days later, on Christmas Day, pirates stormed the Taiwanese fishing vessel Shiuh Fu No. 1 northeast of the island of Madagascar.

Only 10 of the successful 49 hijackings in 2010 took place in the Gulf of Aden and only seven occurred in the International Recommended Transit Corridor where international naval forces, including the U.S.-led Task Force 151, are concentrated.

These naval forces have thwarted several pirate attacks but the sea bandits' growing range has taken them out of the danger zone.

Until 2010 the annual monsoon seasons usually meant a drop in attacks because the pirates, who invariably used small boats, were unable to operate in the rough seas between January and March and August through October.

By taking to larger ships capable of riding out heavy seas, the pirates can maintain a year-round strike capability, netting them more ships for ransom.

Nowadays they're converting ships like the Shiuh Fu, the Taiwanese fishing vessel seized in December, into "mother ships" from which they launch the skiffs carrying armed men to storm their victims.

These ships are more seaworthy -- and they don't produce large ransoms like bigger cargo vessels and tankers do.

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of U.S. naval forces in the Indian Ocean, said in Washington Jan. 27 there are up to eight "pirate attack groups" using hijacked vessels as mother ships.

Shipping industry sources said these include the Shiuh Fu, which is suspected of being used for attacks east of Madagascar and the 140-ton Mozambican fishing vessel Vega 5, seized between Mozambique and Madagascar, was spotted Dec. 31 in that area towing what appeared to be pirate skiffs.

"Pirates can hopscotch their way across the Indian Ocean by hijacking larger and larger boats until they capture a prized cargo ship or tanker that can bring in millions of dollars in ransom once secured off the coast of Somalia," Stratfor noted.

Anti-piracy operations have clearly made little lasting impact on the marauders, who have evolved countermeasures to those devised by the international flotillas.

There have been repeated calls for Special Forces operations against pirate bases along Somali's coast to curtail their depredations.

But Western reluctance to get boots on the ground in war-torn Somalia has prevented such operations. Fox, however, says counter-terrorism techniques, including attacking their bases, should be used against the pirates if they are to be crushed.

Shipping companies are hoping that two commando raids by South Korean and Malaysian forces in January that recaptured hijacked ships could signal a tougher line against the pirates.

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