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| Africa Horn | |
| Six pirates drowned leaving supertanker | |
| 2009-01-10 | |
SIX Somalian pirates have drowned on leaving freed Saudi-owned supertanker Sirius Star nearly two months after it was captured off the east African coast, their leader said today. "Six of our boys perished at the sea while coming from the released Saudi supertanker" Mohamed Said said.
"The small boat that was carrying those killed and eight who survived was overloaded and at high speed as we are told by the survivors; they were afraid of a chase from outsiders (foreign navies of the Combined Maritime Forces) who invaded Somalia waters," he said. Part of the $US300,000 ($420,600) ransom paid to free the tanker had also been on the boat and was now missing. Haradhere resident Mohamud Aden said the capsize was an accident. "The pirates were full of joy and partially frightened by the presence of foreign war machines and overspeeding," he said. "That was a tragedy for the pirates." The 330m Sirius Star, owned by the shipping arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco, was seized far off the east African coast on November 15, in what was the pirates' most daring attack and largest catch to date. It was still moored off Harardhere today. The amount of the ransom paid for the ship's release was not known. Pirates had earlier said days after seizing the tanker they wanted $US25 million ($35 million) for its release. Sources close to the negotiations said $US3 million ($4 million) were delivered to the pirate group onshore on Thursday. A dispute briefly erupted between the pirates over how the ransom money should be distributed. | |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #16 "...while the other four swum to the shower" said Ali Yussuf..." Well, at least those four made a clean getaway... |
| Posted by: Muggsy Glink 2009-01-10 18:55 |
| #15 that's good, that's the way the sharks like their meat: poor "simmers". |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-01-10 18:01 |
| #14 Copied as is... Five Somali pirates were drown in the sea after having taken fabulous amount of money from a Saudi tanker they have hijacked some two months ago off the coast of Somalia. “The pirates were coming towards the shore of Haradhere in Mudug region after having taken 3 million dollars from a Saudi oil tanker which they have set free on Friday afternoon they were on board two speed boats singing in colorful tone, and exchanging some ridiculous words unfortunately one of the boats carrying 9 Somali pirates capsized and five of the pirates who were not simmers were drown in the sea the while the other four swum to the shower” said Ali Yussuf a resident of the pirates invested town of Haradhere speaking to Somaliweyn radio shortly after the tragedy occurred. The resident also added that there are some great swimmers in the ocean with their boats ransacking for the remains of their fellow pirates drown in the Indian Ocean before making us out of they gained through unlawful means (ransom). On the other hand some reports we are getting from the ground says that pastoralists traveling along the shore have slowly collected dollars floating on the surface of the sea, and some brought by the ebb tide to shore. http://www.somaliweyn.org/pages/news/Jan_09/10Jan18.html |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-10 17:54 |
| #13 The pictures!!! |
| Posted by: Injun Angulet2150 2009-01-10 16:55 |
| #12 Pictures of the money drop taken by the US Navy: |
| Posted by: Injun Angulet2150 2009-01-10 16:51 |
| #11 if there ever was any Money... |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2009-01-10 15:39 |
| #10 Read elsewhere that the money went down with them. Insh allah, indeed. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-10 13:59 |
| #9 Coming soon to Discovery Channel, new episode of "Most Dangerous Catch." Except these guys ARE the crab pots. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-01-10 12:38 |
| #8 I love a happy ending. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-01-10 11:41 |
| #7 They evidently didn't take the "Safe Boating" Course sponsored by the Somali Coast Guard. |
| Posted by: Tom- Pa 2009-01-10 11:32 |
| #6 Arf! Arf! |
| Posted by: Seals 2009-01-10 11:29 |
| #5 6 dead, 4 missing, everybody's cut goes up X10? I'm sure it's just that ol' insh allah... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-10 10:53 |
| #4 Maybe the Saudis don't much care for paying ransom. I can think of ways to make a speedboat capsize, if I knew where and when it was going, so perhaps the Saudis could too. Personally, I think ALL the pirates should suffer fatal accidents when leaving, since nobody seems willing to cause them fatal on-purposes before that. So where's the sympathy meter? Broken and at the shop? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-01-10 10:38 |
| #3 are they their own worst enemy or what.... I think they are about to get some lessons in modern seagoing warfare |
| Posted by: Davey Jones 2009-01-10 10:35 |
| #2 Slightly "However things went badly wrong for the pirates soon after the drop - they squabbled over how to split the money and then a wave washed off their getaway boat and drowned five of them. . . . [A]s they made off they continued to row about the payout. 'Two of them swam and survived. One is still missing. The weather was so terrible that it blew the boat over, then sank it. We got five dead bodies and we are still searching for the missing one. The waves were disastrous,' said Farah Osman, an associate of the gang. It is not known what happened to the money or those who survived." Hee hee hee. Re the "terrible" weather - the pictures of the money drop show clear day, calm sea. Maybe Life is hard. It's harder when you're |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-01-10 10:29 |
| #1 That Darwin guy is one busy dude... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-01-10 09:59 |