The Action of 28 October 2007 was part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa

Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa

Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa is a joint task force of United States Africa Command . It originated under Operation Enduring Freedom-Horn of Africa as part of the United States response to the September 11, 2001 attacks...

, the military operation

Military operation

Military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state's favor. Operations may be of combat or non-combat types, and are referred to by a code name for the purpose...

 defined by the United States for combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa

Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...

. The operation is one component of the overall mission of Operation Enduring Freedom. The incident occurred when United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 units acted to interdict piracy

Piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 in the region.

Background

After a decrease in piracy in the first half of 2007, Somali pirates rebounded and again started to increase their attacks on shipping off the coast of Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

. On 28 October 2007, pirates hijacked the Japanese tanker

Chemical tanker

A chemical tanker is a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk.Ocean-going chemical tankers generally range from to in size, which is considerably smaller than the average size of other tanker types due to the specialised nature of their cargoes and the size restrictions of the...

 the MV Golden Nori

MV Golden Nori

The ' is a Japanese chemical tanker that was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia on 28 October 2007. In news reports, she has at times been mistakenly referred to as the Golden Nory and Golden Mori....

, eight nautical miles (15 km) off the Somali coast.

Military confrontation

After receiving a distress call, the USS Porter

USS Porter (DDG-78)

USS Porter is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. Porter is named after Commodore David Porter, and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter....

, an Arleigh Burke-class

Arleigh Burke class destroyer

The Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers is the United States Navy's first class of destroyer built around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1D multi-function phased array radar. The class is named for Admiral Arleigh "31-Knot" Burke, the most famous American destroyer officer of...

 destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

, arrived at the scene and attacked and sank two skiffs being towed by the tanker. The tanker's owner and operator, Dorval Kaiun Shipping, reported that its cargo consists of four kinds of chemicals, including highly flammable benzene

Benzene

Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....

. The United States Fifth Fleet spokesperson, Lydia Roberts, stated, "we were aware of what was on the ship when we fired".

As the hijacked tanker continued underway, the Porter's sister ship USS Arleigh Burke

USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)

The USS Arleigh Burke , named for Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN , is the lead ship of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. She was laid down by the Bath Iron Works company at Bath, Maine, on 6 December 1988, and launched on 16 September 1989 by Mrs. Arleigh Burke...

 received authorization from Somali authorities to pursue it. This is the first incident of Somali piracy where the United States Navy was given permission for pursuit within Somali territorial waters. The Navy continued to shadow the vessel through October and November, 2007. One of the crewmembers escaped the ship and made it to safety, angering the pirates and complicating the situation even further.
In November negotiations started for the tanker's release, but by 4 December the Golden Nori had been cornered in the port of Bosasso by two American and one German ships. Coalition forces called on the pirates to surrender, threatening them with military force if the standoff continued. The pirates in return demanded one million dollars in ransom, saying if it was not paid they would kill all 21 members of the crew. On 12 December, the pirates left the vessel for the coast and set the crew free. It is unclear as of yet if the pirates received their demanded ransom, or left simply because of the pressure applied by the Coalition.

Similar incident

Another hijacking in the same region occurred late on 29 October when gunmen attacked the North Korean freighter

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

Dai Hong Dan. A helicopter from the , responding to a telephoned report of a hijacking, flew over the freighter on 30 October and radioed a demand for the attackers to surrender. The freighter's crew subsequently overwhelmed the gunmen, killing one and detaining the rest. With the permission of the freighter's crew, US Navy forces boarded the freighter to treat the wounded, which included three crewmen and three pirates. This hijacking may not have been the work of indiscriminate area pirates; the hijackers are believed to be security guards hired by the freighter's shipping agent.

Aftermath

After the release of the Golden Nori, the US Navy started pressuring pirates on other vessels to release their captives and flee. Not too long after the release of the Golden Nori all other vessels were released, some after US warships threatened to use force to remove the pirates on them. Some of the pirates fled without taking ransoms but it appears that others were indeed given ransom payments before leaving the ships they had taken. American ships escorted the freed vessels out of Somali waters and provided assistance to the crews of those vessels. All vessels were freed and no vessel was captured by pirates for a matter of months after the release of the Nori allowing for a short period of peace along the coast.