seized eight vessels including the huge Saudi supertanker. Several
hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates. The pirates dock
the hijacked ships near the eastern and southern Somali coast and
negotiate for ransom.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said today that the Saudi government
was not and would not negotiate with pirates, but what the ship's
owners did was up to them.
A radical Islamic group in Somalia said today that it would fight the
pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of
crude oil. Abdelghafar Musa, a fighter with al-Shabab who claims to
speak on behalf of all Islamic fighters in the Horn of Africa nation,
said ships belonging to Muslim countries should not be seized.
The Somali pirates have the support of their communities and rogue
members of the government. Often dressed in military fatigues, pirates
travel in open skiffs with outboard engines, working with larger ships
that tow them far out to sea. They use satellite navigational and
communications equipment and an intimate knowledge of local waters,
clambering aboard commercial vessels with ladders and grappling hooks.
They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket
launchers and grenades -- weaponry that is readily available
throughout Somalia.
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