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Islamists free hijacked ship
08/11/2006 10:49 - (SA)
Nairobi - Forces loyal to Somalia's powerful Islamist movement stormed a ship hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast, freeing the vessel and its crew after a fierce gunbattle, said a maritime source on Wednesday.
The source said that at least two of the six gunmen who had seized the United Arab Emirates-flagged MV Veesham 1 last week were reportedly seriously injured in late Tuesday's clash, but the 14 crew members were unharmed.
Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme in the Kenyan port of Mombasa said: "Reports indicate that two pirates are seriously injured following heavy gunfire between the Islamic militias and the pirates last night."
Mwangura, whose organisation monitored such incidents, said "all 14 crew members" - four Indians, four Sri Lankans, two Pakistanis, two Ethiopians and one Eritrean - "are safe and in high spirits".
Pirates demand $1m ransom
He said the ship was now en route to Mogadishu in the custody of Islamist forces that had moved toward the ship at the weekend after the pirates demanded a one-million-dollar ransom for the release of the vessel and its crew.
The 2 285-ton MV Veesham 1 had been chartered to ship charcoal from Somalia to Dubai, but was seized on October 02 near Adale, 95km northeast of Mogadishu, after it left the Somali port of El-Maan.
Mwangura said the vessel had been freed in Indian Ocean waters between Islamist-held ports of Hobyo and Haradeere, about 400km north of the capital.
Its hijacking had raised fears of a resurgence in piracy in Somali waters after a several-month lull related to the rapid rise of the Islamists who had imposed strict Sharia law in areas they controlled and vowed to eliminate crime.
IMB issues warning
Somali waters had been plagued by scores of piracy incidents between March 2005 and June, when the Islamists seized Mogadishu and later moved into much of southern and central Somalia.
The spate of hijacking incidents off the unpatrolled 3 700km Somali coast, which included more than 40 attacks on vessels, prompted dire warnings from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
But the Islamists, who were now girding for war against the country's weak government, had vowed to eradicate piracy and had taken control of several Somali ports from where pirates were known to operate.
The latest hijacking took place just a day after a Kenyan court sentenced 10 Somalis to seven years in prison each after convicting them of piracy in a landmark trial.
Somalia had been without a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and its two-year-old transitional government had been wracked by infighting and was now challenged by the Islamists.
- AFP
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