From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Sep 28 2008 - 08:54:29 EDT
U.S. ship monitors hijacked vessel off Somalia’s coast
Sept 28, 2008
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSANThe Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia | A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia
closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and
ammunition.
The U.S. ship took position to ensure that the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew.
As
Russian and American ships pursued the hijackers, pirates seized
another ship off Somalia’s coast, an international anti-piracy group
said.
The Greek tanker with a crew of 19 is carrying refined
petroleum from Europe to the Middle East. It was ambushed Friday in the
Gulf of Aden, said Noel Choong, who leads the International Maritime
Bureau’s piracy reporting center. He said pirates chased and fired at
the ship before boarding it.
In Somalia, a man claiming to be
spokesman of the pirates holding the Ukrainian ship said the hijackers
want $35 million to release the vessel.
On Thursday, pirates
seized the Ukrainian-flagged ship Faina en route to Kenya with 33
Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and
spare parts.
The hijackings were the latest in a series of
maritime attacks off the coast of Somalia, which has been without a
functioning government since 1991.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/816658.html
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