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Somali pirates free Panamanian ship, crew
 A ransom of 3.1 million dollars has secured the release of a Panamanian-flagged ship and its crew of 26, said the Somali pirates holding the ship since October. "Aaar! Rum fer everybody! The check's cleared!" The 22,000-ton bulk carrier, Al Khaliq, was seized on October 22, some 180 nautical miles from Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The ship's crew is said to consist of 24 Indians and two Burmese. Pirate leaders in the pirate den of Harardhere, north of the capital Mogadishu, told the media by phone that the ship had been deserted following the payment. Other sources confirmed that the ship was free. A fisherman told the AFP that he had seen some of the pirates returning ashore from the ship with bags of cash. The sea bandits are currently holding 11 foreign vessels together with more than 200 crew members, and have made millions of dollars in the past weeks in exchange for several ships. In one instance, the pirates received seven million dollars for the 330-metre-long Greek supertanker hijacked last month. Despite an international naval presence off the coast of Somalia to take on the rising piracy in one the world's busiest shipping lanes, Somali pirates were responsible for more than half of the 406 hijacking attacks worldwide last year, showing an alarming 40 percent increase, according to figures from the International Maritime Bureau. Posted by: Fred 2010-02-10 |
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