Pirates raid Indonesian tanker ship

Pirates with automatic weapons stormed an Indonesian tanker ship in the Malacca Strait and escaped with equipment and cash, a maritime official said. No one was injured in an attack -- the third this year against chemical tankers in the busy strait -- said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's Kuala Lumpur-based piracy watch centre. Choong said 10 pirates in speedboats attacked the Indonesian-flagged Dewi Mandrim in waters on the Malaysian-Indonesian border.
Four of the pirates boarded the ship and switched off its communication system. They held the crew at gunpoint for an hour, then left in a speedboat with electronic equipment and valuables worth about $ 13,000.

Choong said two other chemical tankers were attacked on March 18 and Feb 25 in the Malacca Straits, but the pirates failed to board after the ships sped away. He said pirates in speedboats fired shots as they approached the two vessels. An officer on board the Malaysian-registered MT Suhaila was shot in the head but survived in the Feb. 25 attack, Choong said.
He said it was not known what cargo, if any, the three tankers were carrying and that there was no evidence linking the attacks to terrorists.

The Malacca Strait, between Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island, is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
It also has a reputation as a pirates' paradise. Despite repeated efforts to beef up security, bandits elude authorities by slipping into the area's numerous islets and reefs.