HONOLULU -- In ordering a U.S. Navy destroyer to capture and board a suspected pirate ship on the high seas in the Indian Ocean, the United States has fired a warning shot across the bow of would-be terrorists who might lash up with pirates in the Asia-Pacific region.
The destroyer, Winston S. Churchill, was ordered to intercept the suspected ship on Jan. 21 after the U.S. Central Command, from its forward headquarters in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, was contacted by the International Maritime Bureau, based in Malaysia. The maritime bureau monitors piracy all over the world but especially in Asia.
It took the U.S. warship several hours of maneuvering and firing warning shots to get the smaller vessel to surrender. The navy boarding party then confiscated a cache of small arms to disarm the ship before sending it on its way.