Somali Pirates At It Again (Updated)

Just a week after the French military staged a daring raid to capture Somali pirates who had ransomed a French yacht crew, another pirate gang has nabbed 26 Spanish sailors:

The Foreign Ministry said there had been no reports of injuries in the seizure of the Spanish vessel Playa de Bakio on Sunday in Somali waters. The government had formed a high-level crisis unit to try to secure the release of the boat, and a Spanish frigate that was already in the Horn of Africa region was now heading towards the site of the hijacking,
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s office said.

"The dispatch of a single ship doesn't imply Spain has any intentions to take action, and France had a much better logistical situation than
Spain does in dealing with the problem," Galrahn notes:

However, it should be noted the Spanish had a major exercise a few weeks ago called Gruflex
08, that involved a rather large Spanish naval force ... Given a mandate, Spain could wipe out the Somalia pirates involved with that kind of naval power.

On a related note, the average Somali is opposed to foreign occupation of Somalia proper, but there is broad public support for international efforts to stop piracy, according to my friend Omar Hussein, a Somali reporter. "Somalia has congratulated the French military for its operation against a gang of pirates who captured a luxury yacht and held its crew hostage," Hussein reported, adding that "French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said called for a U.N.
sponsored anti-pirate force to stop anything similar happening again."

Update, 10:40 EST:

Security forces in northern Somalia stormed a hijacked ship carrying food Tuesday, rescuing hostages and arresting seven pirates, officials said. The seizure was the latest in a spate of pirate attacks off the increasingly lawless Somali coast.

The Dubai-flagged ship, called the al-Khaleej, originated from the United Arab Emirates and was seized Monday, said Abdullahi Said Samatar, security affairs minister in Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region.

It was not immediately clear how many people were on board. Puntland officials announced it had been seized only after the boat was rescued.

"Our forces rescued a small commercial boat hijacked on Monday off the coast of Bossaso town," Samatar told The Associated Press. "Three were injured in the operation and seven others will be brought to justice."