Pirates Kidnap Two American Sailors In Bayelsa

Pirates have stormed an oil supply vessel off southern Nigeria and kidnapped the ship’s captain and chief engineer, both US citizens, a private security firm and US officials said Thursday.
A US-flagged C-Retriever owned by American oil servicing company, Edison Chouest Offshore was attacked on Wednesday off the city of Brass, said AKE, a London-headquartered private security firm.
“Both the chief engineer and the captain were kidnapped,” Richard Fylon of AKE said. “They are both Americans.”
US defence officials in Washington, who requested anonymity, confirmed the details.
An official at AKE’s Lagos office said this was the first reported kidnapping of US nationals around the oil-producing Niger Delta region in at least two years.
he official, who requested anonymity, said the same area was attacked by pirates earlier this week, but that there appeared to have been no increase in naval patrols operating in the area.
The Lagos-based AKE official, citing recent attack patterns, said the raid on the American-owned C-Retriever was likely carried out by gunmen on board two or three speed boats, with four attackers on board each boat.
The US navy, along with forces from Britain, Spain and The Netherlands last week conducted a joint training exercise with Nigeria’s navy to curb piracy in the region.