NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Somalis are so desperate to survive that attacks on merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean will not stop, a pirate leader promises.

"The pirates are living between life and death," said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. "Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything."

The interview with the pirate was conducted in late August by journalists employed by the Somali news organization Garowe. The complete interview was provided to CNN last week and provides a glimpse of why piracy has been so hard to control in the region.

Recorded on grainy video, the interview took place in the Somali port city of Eyl, now a center of pirate operations. Eyl is on the east coast of Somalia in the autonomous territory of Puntland. It is a largely lawless zone, considered extremely dangerous for Westerners to enter.

The Puntland government said two unidentified Western journalists were taken hostage Wednesday as they attempted to report on pirate activity.

Boyah said that the piracy began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks. Traditional fishermen started attacking the trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons. The fishermen then turned to softer targets."We went into the deep ocean and hijacked the unarmed cargo ships," Boyah said.

"For the past three years, we have not operated near the Somali coast. We have operated at least 80 miles [out], in international waters."When merchant shipping started avoiding the Somali coast, Boyah said, "we went to ships traveling other routes."

Over the past year, the number of pirate attacks has increased dramatically. The International Maritime Bureau cites more than 90 pirate attacks off East Africa so far in 2008. When attacks are successful, the hijacked ships are taken to Somali waters, where the ships and crew are held until a ransom is paid.[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] »
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

arg!! hand ova yer booty!!


lol...send in a fleet of ships and we'll see who can stop who

Your right King Farad should send is Emirates with his white destroyer go hunting baboon in Kayack LOL ....

NATO has already dispatched ships to the area. I've got a friend down there in a greek vessel fighting the bloody pirates.

Lol pirates and 2008 dont quite match.

but PIRATE NINJAS and 2008 does!!!

think that would be a fun thing to see o.O

Virtuo your right wasup with that C-Mon Pirates against multi powers it doesn't make sense at all.They all Doom so be it .