MOGADISHU (AFP) — Forces from the Somali breakaway region of Puntland on Sunday attacked pirates holding a Somali cargo freighter, triggering clashes that killed two pirates and a soldier, an official said. Four others, including another Puntland soldier, were wounded when the forces attempted to rescue MV Awail, owned by a Somali trading company with a crew of 13 Syrians and two Somalis, which was seize Thursday off the region's shores."They surrounded the (Somali) ship this morning near Hafun area, where they exchanged fire with pirates killing two of them. One of our men also died," said Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of Puntland's Bari region. "Three pirates and a policemen were wounded," he told AFP by phone.
"We are expecting that forces will manage to free the ship in a few hours because the pirates on board are few and they have been besieged."
Meanwhile, delicate negotiations were placed on hold earlier Sunday over a 10-million-dollar (7.5-million-euro) ransom request by pirates holding a Ukranian arms ship off the Somali coast.
Pirates had earlier agreed to free the MV Faina, hijacked late last month, but later walked out of the deal demanding Somali mediators be withdrawn.
"The talks between pirates and ship owners totally stopped yesterday (Saturday) after the pirates insisted Somali brokers be removed from the process to negotiate," said Ahmed Abshir Hasan, an elder in the Somali coastal town of Harardhere, where the MV Faina is anchored. "The commanders of the pirates on the ship reported to us that the talks totally stopped. We don't know why they refused those brokers in the last minutes after working between them for the last week," he told AFP.
The hijackers have reportedly settled for a 10-million-dollar (7.4-million-euro) ransom after initially demanding more than three times that sum, but the figure could change. "They agreed to receive 10 million dollars for the release of the ship but the talks were stopped because of the Somali brokers. They said the process will resume in four days with new brokers," said another local elder, Abdullahi Moalim Afrah.
"We were close to agreeing on a ransom (figure) but we got out of that deal because of the Somali brokers who are going between us," one of the pirates told AFP. "We don't want any Somali broker to get involved in this deal and that is why we stopped the talks," he added, who declined to give his name.
US warships and navies from other nations are shadowing MV Faina to prevent the pirates from offloading the cargo.