Crew is finally safe from hostages

It was recently that a group of South Korean commandos rescued individuals that were on a freighter that was hijacked. With the aid of a Lynx helicopter and a covering fire that was caused by a destroyer, these commandos went on to rescue the hostages after they managed to scramble up a ladder to the ship. The pirates who were from Somali were equipped with anti-tank missiles and assault rifles. The entire mission was done in five hours.

Crew is finally safe from hostages

This operation conducted by the South Korean commandos rescued all the 21 hostages on board. The entire operation left eight pirates killed and five pirates were captured. President Lee Myung –bak was happy with the success and described the mission to be perfect. He further stated that this rare and daring raid ended remarkably and this is a positive sign for the country against the fight of pirates that are conquering and also tormented shipping activities in the sea of the Horn of Africa. There was also one person that was injured in the crew and he was the captain of the ship called Seok Bae-gyun. The 58 year old captain was shot by a pirate in the stomach. After being rescued he was taken to a nearby country by a helicopter for treatment and hospital sources revealed that the wound suffered by the captain was not a life threatening one.

The above raid conducted by the South Korean commandos has boosted both the military and the President’s confidence against their battle against pirates. Both the military and the President in the past had to come under sharp criticism when they acted slow and weak in an incident where North Korea attacked an island in November in the disputed waters. This attack killed people that included two marines and two civilians. “The raid on Friday came after one week when certain Somali attackers captured a 11,500 ton carrier of chemicals, the Samho Jewelry. This carrier was coming from the UAE to Sri Lanka. President Lee vehemently stated that South Korea is not going to face or tolerate behavior that threats the life and the safety of the nation’s poor people. He appeared on television for a brief statement and made this clear on air,” one newspaper was quoted as saying. There were emotional scenes where the wife of the one of the South Korean crew wept gratefully when the end of the hijack saga ended. The woman said that she and her family could not eat or sleep. They constantly prayed for their safe return and she said that she was relieved and happy that her husband was safe. The father of another crew member wept in joy when he saw the news and came to know that his son was safe.

There were 21 crew members and out of them eight were from South Korea and two were from Indonesia. There were 11 crew members from Myanmar. Most of the times the security forces are not keen to conduct such raids keeping in mind the safety of the hostages.

Short URL: http://dailynewsdirect.com/?p=323

Posted by arun on Apr 21 2012. Filed under featured news, travel and living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry