al_gy
11-08-2006, 08:01 PM
Somali Islamists storm, free hijacked UAE ship after gunbattle
(AFP)
8 November 2006
MOGADISHU - Islamist gunmen stormed a ship hijacked last week off the coast of Somalia, freeing the captive vessel and its crew after a fierce gunbattle with pirates, officials and maritime sources said on Wednesday.
Fifteen heavily armed Muslim commandos raided the ship under cover of darkness late Tuesday, engaging the pirates and seriously wounding two of them, a senior Islamist official told reporters in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
None of the 14 crew -- identified as Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Ethiopians and an Eritrean -- were injured in the incident and all were reported to be safe and in good spirits, a maritime official said.
All eight suspects will stand trial before a Sharia court for piracy, which can draw the death penalty under Koranic law, said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the executive arm of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS).
‘It was a very difficult task to rescue the ship but our forces managed to attack the pirates inside Somali waters,’ he told a Mogadishu news conference.
‘We arrested all eight and they are waiting to be brought before an Islamic court to get their punishment,’ Ahmed said, warning would-be Somali pirates that they would face prosecution for such activity.
‘We will not tolerate anyone creating trouble in our waters,’ he said.
In Malaysia, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) confirmed that the the United Arab Emirates-flagged, 2,285-tonne MV Veesham 1 and its ‘crew have been freed after a six-day ordeal.’
‘Fifteen armed members of the Council of Islamic Courts intercepted the ship and boarded it,’ said Noel Choong, head of the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre.
‘They fought with the hijackers,’ he told AFP from the group’s Kuala Lumpur headquarters. ‘All crew members are safe but two hijackers were injured.’
The pirates seized the MV Veesham 1 on November 2 near Adale, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, as it sailed from the Somali port of El-Maan to Dubai with a cargo of charcoal.
The 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 have imposed strict Sharia law in areas they control and vowed to eliminate crime.
The attackers had demanded a one-million-dollar ransom for the release of the ship and its crew, according to Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers’ Assistance Program in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
He said the Islamists stormed the vessel in Indian Ocean waters about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Mogadishu between Islamist-held ports of Hobyo and Haradeere and that it was now en route to Mogadishu.
‘All 14 crew members are safe and in high spirits,’ Mwangura said.
Somali waters had been plagued by scores of piracy incidents between March 2005 and June, when the Islamists seized Mogadishu and then moved into much of southern and central Somalia.
The spate of hijacking incidents off the unpatrolled 3,700-kilometer (2,300-mile) Somali coast, which included more than 40 attacks on vessels, prompted dire warnings from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
But the Islamists, who are now girding for war against the country’s weak government, have vowed to eradicate piracy and have taken control of several Somali ports from where pirates were known to operate, including Haradeere.
The hijacking of the MV Veesham 1 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 has been without a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and its two-year-old transitional government has been wracked by infighting and is now challenged by the Islamists.
(AFP)
8 November 2006
MOGADISHU - Islamist gunmen stormed a ship hijacked last week off the coast of Somalia, freeing the captive vessel and its crew after a fierce gunbattle with pirates, officials and maritime sources said on Wednesday.
Fifteen heavily armed Muslim commandos raided the ship under cover of darkness late Tuesday, engaging the pirates and seriously wounding two of them, a senior Islamist official told reporters in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
None of the 14 crew -- identified as Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Ethiopians and an Eritrean -- were injured in the incident and all were reported to be safe and in good spirits, a maritime official said.
All eight suspects will stand trial before a Sharia court for piracy, which can draw the death penalty under Koranic law, said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the executive arm of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS).
‘It was a very difficult task to rescue the ship but our forces managed to attack the pirates inside Somali waters,’ he told a Mogadishu news conference.
‘We arrested all eight and they are waiting to be brought before an Islamic court to get their punishment,’ Ahmed said, warning would-be Somali pirates that they would face prosecution for such activity.
‘We will not tolerate anyone creating trouble in our waters,’ he said.
In Malaysia, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) confirmed that the the United Arab Emirates-flagged, 2,285-tonne MV Veesham 1 and its ‘crew have been freed after a six-day ordeal.’
‘Fifteen armed members of the Council of Islamic Courts intercepted the ship and boarded it,’ said Noel Choong, head of the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre.
‘They fought with the hijackers,’ he told AFP from the group’s Kuala Lumpur headquarters. ‘All crew members are safe but two hijackers were injured.’
The pirates seized the MV Veesham 1 on November 2 near Adale, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, as it sailed from the Somali port of El-Maan to Dubai with a cargo of charcoal.
The 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 have imposed strict Sharia law in areas they control and vowed to eliminate crime.
The attackers had demanded a one-million-dollar ransom for the release of the ship and its crew, according to Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers’ Assistance Program in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
He said the Islamists stormed the vessel in Indian Ocean waters about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Mogadishu between Islamist-held ports of Hobyo and Haradeere and that it was now en route to Mogadishu.
‘All 14 crew members are safe and in high spirits,’ Mwangura said.
Somali waters had been plagued by scores of piracy incidents between March 2005 and June, when the Islamists seized Mogadishu and then moved into much of southern and central Somalia.
The spate of hijacking incidents off the unpatrolled 3,700-kilometer (2,300-mile) Somali coast, which included more than 40 attacks on vessels, prompted dire warnings from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
But the Islamists, who are now girding for war against the country’s weak government, have vowed to eradicate piracy and have taken control of several Somali ports from where pirates were known to operate, including Haradeere.
The hijacking of the MV Veesham 1 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 has been without a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and its two-year-old transitional government has been wracked by infighting and is now challenged by the Islamists.