Somali pirates who have been holding a hijacked ship for nearly two years killed a Syrian hostage crew member and maimed another to protest a delayed ransom payment, a pirate leader said.This is believed to be the first time Somali pirates have killed a hostage because of a delay in ransom.
Hassan Abdi, a pirate commander in Haradhere town, a key pirate center, said that the killing on Wednesday was a message to the owners of the ship MV Orna, hijacked 400 miles northeast of the island nation of the Seychelles in December 2010.
"The killing was a message to the owners of the ship who paid no heed to our ransom demands," Abdi said by telephone.
"More killings will follow if they continue to lie to us -- we have lost patience with them. Two years is enough," he said angrily.
The MV Orna is a Panama-flagged, bulk cargo vessel owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates.
The pirates operating along the Somali coastline of the Indian Ocean were once were believed to be disgruntled and financially motivated Somali fishermen, angry that international trawlers were illegally fishing Somalia's waters. But now criminal gangs are dominating the piracy trade and they have become increasingly violent as international navies attempt to crackdown on their activities.