Operations
The UIM (or BBE Mariniers prior to 2005) has seen a lot of action since its creation. The first real intervention mission was the recapture of the Scheveningen prison in October 1974. Operators used hand-to-hand combat and stun grenades against jailed terrorists, who had revolted and held the prison under siege.
The best-known intervention mission was ending the combined siege of a train and a primary school, which was done by South-Moluccan terrorists. The UIM managed to kill the 6 captors on the train during a short but precise raid. Unfortunately, 2 hostages did not survive this. The raid was successful due to the fact that the Royal Netherlands Air Force was called in, with 6 F-104 Starfighter aircraft making very low flypast manoeuvres in full afterburn. This was mainly a distraction, allowing for a swift raid and the killing of the six captors on board. The siege at the primary school ended not long after the train siege had ended.
On 13 March 1978, the UIM responded to a province hall hostage crisis in Assen. The raid came just in time: the hijackers had almost executed two people.
A known operation of the UIM was on 10 November 2004 in The Hague. The police had tried to arrest Ismail A. and Jason W. (members of the Hofstad Network) in a house at the Laakkwartier, but failed, as three police officers had been injured by grenades thrown at them by the terrorists. UIM operators were ordered to secure and maintain the site. After a successful raid, the two young terrorists were arrested.
In 2008, the UIM had been active in the seas near Somalia as a security detachment for the Royal Netherlands Navy frigate Hr. Ms. De Ruyter, that was tasked with the escort of cargo ships that were contracted by the United Nations' World Food Programme. The unit was deployed several times to fight off pirates that attempted to raid the ships, and some teams were stationed on some of the ships as well.
In April 2010, an UIM-team embarked on board Hr. Ms. Tromp re-captured the German container ship MS Taipan off the coast of Somalia, that was under the control of Somali pirates. Though multiple shots were fired, including a machine gun barrage on the ship's bridge, the only injury was an operator that was slightly injured when he fell while storming the ship. A video released by the Royal Netherlands Navy, shows helmet camera footage of the Marines storming and re-taking the ship.
Read more about this topic: Unit Interventie Mariniers
Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)