Saudi tanker 'freed off Somalia' - 15

A Saudi supertanker that was captured by Somali pirates in November carrying two million barrels of oil has been released, reports quoting pirates say.

A regional maritime group also said pirates had left the Sirius Star, Reuters news agency reported.

A negotiator for the pirates told the BBC a $3m (£1.95m) ransom was paid.

A small plane was seen apparently dropping the ransom by parachute onto the tanker. The ship's owner has refused to comment.

The vessel, with 25 crew, is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked.

Coalition naval forces in Bahrain said it appeared that the pirates on the Sirius Star had received a ransom payment in a container parachuted from a plane.

Reuters later reported that five of the pirates making off with the ransom money had drowned after their boat was hit by high seas.

The audacious seizure of the tanker had drawn fresh attention to the dangerous waters off Somalia's coastline. All our people have now left the Sirius Star. The ship is free, the crew is free

Somali pirate, Mohamed Said

There were more than 100 reported pirate attacks in the busy shipping lanes off eastern and northern Somalia in 2008.

An international force headed by the US is due to be established by the end of the month to tackle the problem.

On Friday, Kenya's port authorities said a fishing vessel had been attacked and three Indian crew kidnapped, Reuters reported.

Pirates are still holding a Ukrainian cargo ship, the MV Faina, which was seized in late September carrying 33 tanks and other weaponry.

'Usual asking price'

"All our people have now left the Sirius Star. The ship is free, the crew is free," Mohamed Said, one of the leaders of the pirate group, told the AFP news agency.

The Kenyan-based East African Seafarers' Assistance programme said gunmen had disembarked from the tanker and that it was "steaming out to safe waters".


How do you pay a pirate's ransom?
On patrol with the pirate hunters
Life in a pirate town

Combined maritime forces patrolling off the Somali coast said only that the ship was expected to be on the move in the next 24 hours.

The release took place at midday, according to one of the negotiators for the Somali pirates, who spoke by phone to the BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in the capital, Mogadishu.

The negotiator said the pirates had disembarked from the Sirius Star and were heading back to their homes in central Somalia, and the vessel's crew was safe.

The pirates agreed on Thursday night to accept a ransom of $3m from the ship's owners, although they had wanted more, he added.

The owner of the Sirius Star refused to confirm or deny any details when contacted by the BBC.

The Sirius Star was carrying $100m worth of oil- a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - when it was seized 450 nautical miles south-east of Kenya.

It was held near the Somali town of Harardhere.

One of the pirates, calling himself Daybad, told the BBC by telephone at the time of the seizure that they had no intention of harming the crew, which included Britons, Saudis, Poles, Croatians and Filipinos.

He admitted they were negotiating a ransom of "the usual asking price", but denied reports it was up to $25m (£16.6m).

And he blamed the lack of peace in Somalia and the plunder of its waters by foreign fishing trawlers for their move into piracy.

The ship's captain, Marek Nishky, was allowed to speak to the BBC under the scrutiny of his captors, and said there was "not a reason for complaints".

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7820311.stm, 10 Jan 09

China readies for pirate patrols - 14

Three Chinese naval ships are preparing to set sail for waters off Somalia to protect Chinese vessels from pirate attacks there.

Two destroyers and a supply ship will leave the port of Sanya on Hainan island to join warships from other nations already patrolling the area.

It will be the Chinese navy's first operation beyond the Pacific.

There have been more than 100 pirate attacks this year off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.

On Thursday, the German navy said it had foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo vessel off Somalia.

Six Somali pirates were captured by sailors of the frigate Karlsruhe in the Gulf of Aden. However, the pirates were immediately released on the orders of the German government, officials told the BBC.

'International scourge'

The three ships from China's South Sea Fleet are due to leave Sanya at 0530 GMT.



The fleet commander, Rear Adm Du Jingchen, said his personnel were prepared for a complicated and long-term mission.

"Acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters off Somalia have been increasingly rampant since the beginning of this year, posing a severe danger to the safety of ships and members from many countries, including China," China's Defence Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said.

"Apart from this, pirates have also been threatening ships delivering humanitarian relief items to Somalia by international organisations. Piracy has become an international scourge."

The Chinese military says there have been seven attacks this year on Chinese vessels in the area.

It says its forces will board and inspect suspected pirate ships, try to rescue those who are attacked and mount a vigourous defence if they themselves come under attack.

However, defence ministry officials insist that China's doctrine of non-interference in other nations' affairs has not changed, the BBC's Chris Hogg in Beijing says.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7799899.stm, 26 Dec 2008

Navy head cool on Somalia strikes - 13

The top US naval commander in the Gulf and Indian Ocean has dampened hopes that piracy off Somalia's coast can be tackled by attacking bases on land.

Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney said that such a policy would be hampered by the difficulties of identifying the pirates and the risks of harming civilians.

He suggested shipping companies should instead employ armed security guards to protect their vessels from hijackings.

Adm Gortney was speaking on the first day of a conference on Gulf security.

The gathering in Bahrain is being attended by 25 countries and top military figures like US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

I see people trying to look for an easy military solution to a problem that demands a non-kinetic solution

Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney
US Fifth Fleet

The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq will also feature, as will the increasing concerns Arab Gulf states have about Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Earlier, US naval officials hosted Afghan President Hamid Karzai on board the aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, to assure him that the US military was taking all precautions to avoid civilian casualties while carrying out air strikes on his country.

'Collateral damage concerns'

The BBC's Frank Gardner in Manama says there seems to be no easy fix for the growing problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Just as the US has been circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for permission to "take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia", the Pentagon's top naval officer in the region has effectively said that is not the solution, our correspondent says.


Adm Gortney also rejected the idea of a naval blockade of Somalia's coast

Speaking at the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, Adm Gortney voiced doubts over the wisdom of attack the pirates' land bases because of the difficulties of identifying them and the potential risks of harming innocent civilians.

"I see people trying to look for an easy military solution to a problem that demands a non-kinetic solution," he told reporters.

"If you're going to do kinetic strikes into the pirate camps, the positive ID and the collateral damage concerns cannot be overestimated."

"They're irregulars - they don't wear uniforms," he added.

Adm Gortney said that the solution lay in bringing stability to Somalia, but that would not happen soon. In the meantime, shipping companies should employ armed guards on board ships, he said.

"I'm a firm believer... because that's what we'd do ashore," he said. "You're working against criminal activity. That's what I'm pushing."

Adm Gortney also rejected the idea of establishing a naval blockade of the Somali coast, saying it would be considered an act of war, and that the size of the coastline would require so many ships that "it would be very, very difficult".

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7780981.stm, 13 Dec 2008

(Newspaper) Expert: Piracy is symptom of cisis in Somalia - 12

Source: The Star, 08 Dec 2008