Oh. Sweet. Jesus. The Somali pirates have gone and done it now: they've hijacked a ship with 20 Americans onboard. This will not end well.

After a rather quiet two months in which the US Navy enforced order in the lawless Gulf of Aden, the pirates have simply relocated out of the way of the patrolling Navy ships and started back up in earnest this week, with the hijacking. But this dangerous prize, I fear, will get them all totally blown the fuck up:

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, the shipping company said.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama [pictured] was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

Twenty Americans onboard and it was an emergency relief ship? This will be a PR disaster for the folk hero pirates. They're going to lose the idle support of the tabloid media half a world away! They will also get killed if they don't watch out. We beg you, pirates: set this ship free immediately. America's always looking for new, weak enemies to crush in the spirit of national unity. Don't be those guys. [Pic: ABC News]