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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Pirates seize two Americans off Nigeria's coast |
| 2013-10-26 |
| [Shabelle] Two Americans were kidnapped by pirates after their ship was attacked off Nigeria's coast, U.S. officials said Thursday. The U.S.-flagged oil supply vessel C-Retriever was targeted in the Gulf of Guinea early Wednesday, Rooters reported. Maritime news website gCaptain reported that the ship's captain and its chief engineer had been kidnapped. U.S. officials said the working assumption was that the pair had been kidnapped for ransom. Nigerian military officials, who deployed army and navy units in the hunt to find the kidnappers, as of late Thursday had no "hard information" on the whereabouts of them or the two American sailors taken hostage, a Nigerian Navy front man told NBC News. The front man attributed the abductions to "criminals in the delta," emphasizing they were common criminals and pirates, not myrmidons. Creeks and swamps leading to the Nigerian coast were being searched for the hostages. The seized vessel is owned by Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore, according to Rooters. The company was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" Sources told NBC News that there were no U.S. warships in the region and no immediate plans for a hostage rescue attempt. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... there is a contingent of U.S. Marines aboard a Dutch warship in the area as part of a military exchange program. "We're obviously closely monitoring reports that two U.S. citizens have been kidnapped from a U.S. flagged vessel," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said at a press briefing on Thursday. "It's a motor vessel, the C-Retriever, in the Gulf of Guinea. We are seeking additional information about the incident, so that we may contribute to safely resolving the situation." |
| Posted by:Fred |