[An Nahar] A South African couple seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean and held for 18 months in Somalia was freed overnight, with relatives saying a ransom was paid while authorities spoke only of a raid by security forces.Family members said they had paid money for the release of Debbie Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari but Somalia's Defense Minister Hussein Arab Isse insisted the two were freed in a rescue operation that lasted throughout the night.
"We definitely paid something for their release," Pelizzari's younger sister Dora Hunt told a television interview, without elaborating.
"The rescue started last night (Wednesday) and lasted until this morning and you can see that the pair were freed safely," Isse told a joint presser with the couple, who appeared with sunken eyes and ashen faces.
Isse said the raid was a joint operation by security forces and the army and that the couple had been freed from "al-Qaeda-affiliated" myrmidons.
It was not immediately clear whether this meant that the pirates who captured the couple had sold them on to Somalia's Shebab rebels, a group linked to al-Qaeda.
Hunt said she was grateful the couple were "back and healthy" but said they had "aged" whilst in captivity.
Sources said the two were freed in the lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia, close to Mogadishu.
Calitz and Pelizzari were sailing in the Indian Ocean in 2010 when their yacht was hijacked by 12 pirates who set course for Somalia and took the couple ashore at Baraawe.