Somali elders yesterday launched a new bid to free an American held hostage for days on a lifeboat after his pirate captors fired on a US navy vessel and defied attempts to arrest them.
Even as negotiations resumed to free the American captain, pirates maneuvered an Italian vessel toward the Somali coastline after hijacking it with 16 people onboard in a separate incident on Saturday, pirate sources said.
Their defiance of Western naval powers showed the difficulty in dealing with the pirates wreaking havoc on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Negotiations broke down on Saturday after US authorities insisted the pirates be arrested after handing over the American, Captain Richard Phillips, a Somali elder said.
The New York Times reported that the breakdown occurred hours after the pirates fired on a small US navy vessel that tried to approach the lifeboat in the Indian Ocean.
Quoting an unnamed US official, the paper reported that the US boat did not return fire.
“Efforts to end the matter did not succeed [on] Saturday and elders have left the village of Garacad [at] Saturday midnight to resume the negotiations again,” Mohamoud Jama, a Somali elder in Garacad, said by telephone.
“We have been told the pirates need a free passage after they release the captain and the American officials told them they are handing them over to the local authorities in Puntland,” Jama said, referring to the northern Somali breakaway region that is a main hub for piracy.
US navy forces have poured into the region since the attack on Phillips’ Danish-operated container ship, the Maersk Alabama, but the pirates have warned against using force to rescue him. He has been held aboard a lifeboat since the attack on Wednesday. The ship’s unarmed crew managed to regain control of the ship, but the pirates bundled Phillips into the lifeboat as they escaped.
They have demanded a ransom and said on Saturday they planned to move Phillips to another ship held by their “friends.”
The Maersk Alabama docked safely in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday and its crew was told to remain aboard while the FBI investigates.
The American crew praised their captain, with one member calling him a “hero” who saved their lives.
Pirates have intensified their attacks over the past week and seized another ship on Saturday, an Italian vessel with 16 people aboard.
The announcement of the capture of the 75m-long Buccaneer was made in an e-mail to the boat’s owners, Micoperi Marine Contractors, spokesman Claudio Bartolotti said from the company’s headquarters in Ravenna, Italy.
He said 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croat were on board.
A pirate said on condition of anonymity that the Italian boat was being directed toward the Somali coastline yesterday.
“The tugboat is heading toward Las Qorey and there are more than 10 pirates onboard the tugboat,” he said from the pirate lair of Eyl. “There are also three speedboats accompanying it to the area.”
Las Qorey is located on the coast of the Gulf of Aden. A trader who sells fuel to the pirates said a group of his customers hijacked the tugboat and have been asking for fuel.
Also See: FEATURE : Pirates are 'noble heroes' to fellow Somalis
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
RSS