Armed Successes

News has been breaking of the use of armed guards in two recent attacks.

An armed team reportedly stopped an attack on a Danish-owned vessel after exchanging fire with suspected pirates. Apparently no one was injured on the Thai crewed, Singapore-registered “Brattingborg” during the attack on Thursday 03/03/11.

According to Lars Steen Rasmussen – the managing director of Nordana, the ship’s owner – this was the first time the company had posted guards on a ship.

“We chose to do it this time because it’s a slow-moving ship and the clearance to the waterline is relatively low,” he said.

The attack came after suspected Somali pirates captured a Danish yacht in the Indian Ocean. The yacht was swiftly retaken after the Dutch couple on board locked themselves in a safe room as an armed team which had been escorting the vessel sprang into action.

Thomas Jakobsson of Naval Guards claimed that that six of his guards were accompanying the Capricorn yacht on a separate motorboat and were forced to respond when armed pirates boarded the yacht “Capricorn”.

Jakobsson says his men had a brief exchange of fire with the pirates before retaking the Capricorn with no casualties on either side.

There has yet to emerge any independent reports or corroboration of this armed escort success story.