Why Somali pirates are hard to defeat

Holding off on military action
Pirates usually attack in small speedboats, using ropes and ladders to climb a ship's hull and seize the crew. Once they have a ship, military action to free it holds dangers. The pirates are trained fighters, heavily armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, and they have the crews as hostages.

NATO and the U.S. Navy said Tuesday they would not try to intercept the Sirius Star, and its captors took it with the 25-member crew to Harardhere, a pirate den on the Somali coast.

The pirates' strongholds on the coast are well known. But no government has broached the idea of military action to clean them out, reluctant to get drawn into Somalia's chaos. Moreover, a bloody assault could undermine what passes for Somalia's central government, already beleaguered by advancing Islamic militants.

The militants represent another danger. So far pirates have avoided association with al-Qaida militants in Somalia, but that could change. Or, Islamic militants could be inspired by shipping's vulnerability to pirate attacks.

"If some pirates with a few machine guns are able to hijack a supertanker, you can imagine what al-Qaida could do if it really wanted to," said Olivier Jakob, managing director of the Swiss oil market research firm Petromatrix.

Armed guards?
The American military's solution has been to advise ships to hire private security. But many in the shipping industry have been reluctant, fearing armed guards will prompt increased violence from pirates.

So far violence has been minimal. The well-organized pirates have almost never harmed hostages and rarely steal cargos, preferring to release for ransoms that some experts say can reach $2 million.

One solution may be unarmed security teams. Using water hoses to batter attacking pirates has worked in the past — even greasing guardrails so pirates can't climb them can be successful, such firms say.

"We've gotten loads of requests in the last 24 hours from shipowners and managers of the Saudi oil companies to put security teams aboard," Nick Davis of Britain-based Anti Piracy Maritime Security Solutions (Non-Lethal), said Tuesday.

Shipping companies are examining other options, too, including avoiding use of the Suez Canal to stay out of the Gulf of Aden. That means longer trips around Africa.

So far, oil prices are dropping because of the world financial crisis. But if the pirate danger is not handled, that could change, warns Jakob, the oil marketing expert.

"If we were to have a similar type of hijacking on another tanker, I think the markets would take notice," he said.

More from msnbc.com World Blog: Bracing for climate-change migrants Bank bailout will cost taxpayers billions Scoop: Kate says kids 'sobbing' at loss of cameras Brazilian police accused of killing 11,000 since 2003 Send us your salutes to troops, friends, kin Giving back for the holiday season? Tell us how On Twitter: Breaking news updates | Weird and wild

MORE FROM AFRICA

Africa Section Front

Uganda debates death penalty for gays   Guinea accuses France of complicity in shooting Senior southern figures arrested as Sudan bans rally 5 peacekeepers die in Darfur ambushes 2nd hoax bomb threat before World Cup draw Africa Section Front   Add Africa headlines to your news reader: