Combatants NATO and allies, represented by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa is the official name used by the US government for a component of its response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on... is the 77th day of the year (78th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Netherlands. ... Combatants NATO and allies, represented by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa is the official name used by the US government for a component of its response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on... Combatants Islamic Courts Union Pro-Islamist Militias Foreign fighters[1] Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Ethiopia United States Commanders Sharif Sheik Ahmed Yusuf Hassan TFG: Barre Adan Shire Hiiraale Col. ... Combatants Islamic Courts Union  Somalia Puntland  USA Strength 12 insurgents Puntland Militia 1 US Destroyer Casualties 12 N/A The Bargal raid occurred in June 2007 around the village of Bargal in the northern province of Bari, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. ...

Background

By 2006 the lack of any government-controlled naval authority along the Somali coast was taking its toll. Pirate gangs controlled by local warlords started to capture passing merchant ships in an attempt to gain funding by ransoming the ships and their crews. As the raids became successful, the pirates became bolder. They began seizing UN aid ships, and even attacked a cruise liner attempting to capture it for ransom. The US Navy and Coalition Vessels from Combined Task Force 150 began actively pursuing pirate vessels in an attempt to deter the attacks. Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ships assigned to Combined Task Force One Five Zero (CTF-150) assemble in a formation in the Gulf of Oman, May 06, 2004 Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) is a multinational coalition naval task force with logistics facilities at Djibouti. ...

The Battle

On March 18 the USS Cape St. George and USS Gonzalez intercepted a suspicious vessel towing two skiffs some 25 nautical miles (46 km) off the Somali coast. The vessels sent two Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats to investigate. The boats' boarding attempt was repulsed by the pirates and they opened fire upon the capital ships with RPG's and other small arms. The two American ships returned fire with small caliber guns fighting the first surface action of the US Navy in the 21st century. The largest of the three pirate vessels was soon set on fire and burned to the waterline. By the time the action was over one pirate was killed, five wounded, and 12 (including the 5 wounded) were captured. USS Cape St. George received minor superficial damage but no US forces were injured. After the action was over a Dutch fast combat support ship provided medical assistance to the wounded and the two US ships continued on their mission. USS (CG-71), named for the site of a World War II naval action off New Ireland in the Solomon Islands where a U.S. Navy destroyer force led by Captain Arleigh Burke defeated a Japanese destroyer force on 25 November 1943, is a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser laid... Categories: Stub ... An RPG-7 captured by the US Army RPG, or Rocket propelled grenade is a loose term describing hand-held, shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons capable of firing an unguided rocket equipped with an explosive warhead. ...

Sources

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=15128
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=101669&ran=240555
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=22784&page=3