Somali Islamists seize ship from pirates
Novr 8, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Islamist fighters stormed a hijacked ship and recaptured it after a gun battle with Somali pirates off the Somalian lawless coast, officials said Wednesday.
Two pirates were seriously wounded during the attack on a commercial vessel, but all 14 crew members were safe, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program.
About 30 Islamist fighters stormed the ship late Tuesday, arriving aboard three speedboats and armed with automatic weapons, he said by telephone after being informed of the ship’s recovery by Islamist officials in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
“All the crew are safe and the vessel has been recaptured,” Mwangura said. The six captured pirates will be tried under Islamic law and if found guilty will have their hands cut off.
It is the first rescue of a ship hijacked by pirates since the Islamic movement seized the capital from warlords in June. They have been expanding their control across the south of the country since then. Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.
A transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help in hopes of restoring order. But the government never asserted much authority and the Islamist group has stepped into the power vacuum.
The group’s strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida fighters.
“War on bandits and pirates is the best war we wage,” said Islamic leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys. “Those pirates will face Islamic justice and will be punished accordingly.”
The ship will return to Mogadishu but is currently anchored 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital.
The 2,285 metric ton (2,518 ton) MV Veesham 1 ship was seized last week while headed to the United Arab Emirates. The pirates had demanded a ransom of US$1 million (EUR780,000).
The ship was registered in the UAE, with crew from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Mwangura said. “The crew are in good spirits,” he added. It was carrying charcoal.
Piracy is rampant off the coast of Somalia. On Nov. 1, 10 Somali pirates who were captured by the U.S. Navy after hijacking a ship were each sentenced to seven years in prison by a Kenyan court.
Somalia has been in chaos since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and turned on each other.
Piracy rose sharply last year, with the number of reported incidents at 35, compared with two in 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
The bandits target both passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot. Somalia’s 3,000-kilometer (1,860-mile) coastline is Africa’s longest.
(AP)