5 Somalis Drown With Pirate Booty
Escape Craft Capsizes In Storm After Ransom Paid; Freed Saudi Tanker En Route Home, Crew Safe
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A parachute dropped by a small aircraft drops over the MV Sirius Star at anchor, an apparent payment via a parachuted container to pirates holding the ship, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. Somali pirates released the oil-laden Saudi supertanker after receiving a $3 million ransom, a negotiator for the bandits said Friday. (AP/AC2C Hudson, USN)
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Fast Facts Somalia Learn about the people, economy and history.
Pirate Daud Nure says the boat with eight people on board overturned in a storm after dozens of pirates left the Sirius Star following a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden that ended Friday.
He said five people died and three people reached shore after swimming for several hours. Daud Nure was not part of the pirate operation but knew those involved.
Jamal Abdulle, a resident of the Somali coastal town of Haradhere, close to where the ship had been anchored also confirmed that the boat sank and that the eight's portion of the ransom money that had been shared between dozens of pirates was lost.
Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said Saturday that the crew of the Sirius Star was safe and that the tanker was on its way home. He said the vessel had left Somalia's territorial waters and was headed to the Saudi port of Dammam.
U.S. Navy photos released Friday showed a parachute, carrying what was described as "an apparent payment," floating toward the tanker. The Sirius Star and its 25-member crew had been held since Nov. 15. Its cargo of crude oil was valued at $100 million at the time.
The capture was seen as a dramatic demonstration of the pirates' ability to strike high-value targets hundreds of miles offshore.
On the same day the Saudi ship was freed, pirates released a captured Iranian-chartered cargo ship, Iran's state television reported Saturday. It said the ship Daylight was carrying 36 tons of wheat when it was attacked in the Gulf of Aden Nov. 18 and seized by pirates. All 25 crew are in good health and the vessel is sailing toward Iran, the TV report said.
The pirate-infested Gulf of Aden is one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
The U.S. Navy announced this week it will head a new anti-piracy task force after more than 100 ships were attacked last year. NATO and the European Union already have warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden and have intervened to prevent several ships from being captured.
More than a dozen ships with about 300 crew members are still being held by pirates off the coast of Somalia, including the weapons-laden Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina, which was seized in September.
The multimillion dollar ransoms are one of the few ways to earn a living in the impoverished, war-ravaged country. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and nearly half of its population depends on aid.
By Associated Press Writer Mohamed Olad Hassan
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 41 CommentsDid you hear? God lost $5.3 Billion in the Madoff scandal and killed himself.
Posted by smurfcrusher at 05:13 PM : Jan 10, 2009
LMAO
Posted by mnelsonix at 07:56 PM : Jan 10, 2009
If GOD wanted somebody dead, it wouldn''t be himself.
Did you hear? God lost $5.3 Billion in the Madoff scandal and killed himself.
Posted by smurfcrusher at 05:13 PM : Jan 10, 2009
LMAO
Posted by hadenough43
dido
Posted by rightbehind
____________________
It''s "Ditto" lol
Posted by mainemade at 01:12 PM : Jan 10, 200
Well, he missed the other three...
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Posted by sandy19731 at 01:43 PM : Jan 10, 2009
For now."
Posted by mainemade
Did you hear? God lost $5.3 Billion in the Madoff scandal and killed himself.
what i can''t understand is why the rest of the world has to mobilize to protect saudi oil tankers. the saudis have there own military and are probably one of the richest countries in the world. yet they just pay ransom to this scum and charge us for it. there just blackmailing the rest of us to protect them. let them mount 50 calibers on there tankers and a few rocket launchers. that would stop those craphead somalians in there tracks. the same with all those other ships passing through there. GROW SOME BALLS AND DEFEND YOURSELVES! SINK THAT MUSLIM TRASH OUT IN THE DEEP. IT''S THE ONLY WAY TO STOP IT. THEY WON''T QUIT UNTIL YOU KILL ENOUGH OF THEM TO MAKE THEM REALIZE THEY WILL DIE IF THEY TRY!!!!!
Posted by mainemade at 01:12 PM : Jan 10, 200
Well, he missed the other three...
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Posted by sandy19731 at 01:43 PM : Jan 10, 2009
For now.
Heheh.
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