NAIROBI, Kenya -- Somali pirates
released a Greek supertanker and its crew of 28 on Monday after a rival pirate
group attacked the pirates onboard in an unsuccessful attempt to steal the
ransom, the spokesman for the European Union's antipiracy force said.
Cmdr. John Harbour said pirates left
the Greek-flagged Maran Centaurus Monday morning. He said a group of rival
pirates had attacked the ship just before the ransom was being delivered,
prompting the pirates onboard the tanker to call for assistance from the
antipiracy force.
Cmdr. Harbour said the EU naval
force didn't intervene but declined to give details on the actions of other
warships in the area. The naval force is monitoring the ship as it leaves
Somali waters, he said.
A Somali middleman, who helped
negotiate the release of the ship, said pirates collected $5.5 million Sunday
afternoon and left the ship Monday morning. The figure couldn't immediately be
confirmed.
The middleman said pirates in two
speedboats attacked the ship Sunday just before the ransom was due to be
delivered but after a brief shootout, two helicopters from a warship
intervened. The middleman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he
feared reprisals, said the two helicopters didn't fire at any of the pirates,
but only hovered over them, successfully scaring off the attacking group.
The Maran Centaurus was hijacked
Nov. 29 about 800 miles
off the Somali coast. It was carrying about two million barrels of crude oil
from Saudi Arabia destined
for the United States,
estimated to be worth roughly $150 million at the time of the attack.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman said
the tanker had left Somalia
escorted by a Greek frigate and was heading to the South African port of Durban. She said all crew members were
in good health and that the ship was expected to reach Durban in a week. The spokeswoman spoke on
condition of anonymity in line with Greek government regulations.
The ship, only the second oil tanker
captured by Somali pirates, had nine Greeks, 16 Filipinos, 2 Ukrainians, and a
Romanian aboard. Its seizure resurrected fears of an environmental or safety
disaster first raised by the capture of the Saudi-owned Sirius Star. That
hijacking was resolved in January last year with a $3 million ransom payment. It
was carrying two million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million at the
time.
The International Maritime Bureau
said last week that sea attacks world-wide surged 39% to 406 cases, the highest
in six years, with raids on vessels by Somali pirates accounting for more than
half of the attacks.
It said that Somali pirates were
responsible for 217 of the global attacks and had seized 47 vessels. This was
nearly double the 111 attacks Somali pirates launched in 2008, of which 42 were
successful hijackings.
The impoverished Horn of Africa
nation hasn't had a functioning government for 19 years and the weak United
Nations-backed administration is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency to
arrest pirates. Across the Gulf of Aden, tensions between north and south Yemen continue
to rise and Islamic militancy is increasing.
Pirates now hold about a dozen
vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.
(from the Wall Street Journal)