Somalia gunbattle kills 17 in capital; 6 wounded

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somali security forces and Islamic insurgents engaged in one of the fiercest gunbattles in recent weeks in the capital Friday, killing at least 17 people and wounding six, police and witnesses said.

The two-hour clash erupted when insurgents attacked the house of a local government official, residents in Mogadishu said.

One of them, Dahir Mohamed, said he counted 15 bodies of young men on the street after the skirmish was over. It was not immediately clear if the dead were civilians or insurgents.

Police officer Abdinur Salad said two soldiers were killed in the clash and another six soldiers were wounded.

In December 2006, Somali soldiers and their Ethiopian allies ousted the Islamists from the capital and much of southern Somalia that the Islamists had ruled for six months.

Since then, the Islamic militants have fought an insurgency, mainly in Mogadishu, that has killed thousands of civilians and sent an estimated half of the capital's 2 million people fleeing from near-daily bombings and attacks.

The insurgents have become increasingly brazen in recent weeks, seizing control of more territory in southern Somalia. Their representatives in Mogadishu regularly hold news conferences and carry out floggings in the parts of the capital they control, whereas only a few months ago they were careful not to be seen in the open.

But the Islamists are split and at times compete for control of the same key towns, unlike in 2006 when they operated under one umbrella group.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other.

Source: AP

Islamic militants join hunt for pirates in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Dozens of Islamic militants stormed the Somali port of Haradheere on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker on Saturday, a local elder said.

Separately, the police in the capital, Mogadishu, said they had ambushed and killed 17 Islamist militants, in an illustration of the chaos in the country that has fueled a dramatic surge in piracy.

The Sirius Star - a Saudi vessel with a cargo of oil worth $100 million and a 25-man crew from the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Poland and Britain - is believed to be anchored offshore near Haradheere, about halfway up Somalia's long coastline.

The elder in Haradheere said the Islamists had arrived wanting to find out immediately about the Sirius Star, which was captured Saturday about 770 kilometers, or 480 miles, off Somalia.

"The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," said the elder, who declined to be identified. "I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."

Sheik Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, said: "Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships. Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."

Both the U.S. Navy and the Dubai-based ship operator Vela International said they could not confirm a media report that the hijackers were demanding a $25 million ransom. That would be the biggest demand to date by pirates who prey on boats in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia.

In Mogadishu, meanwhile, the police said they had killed 17 fighters from the militant Al Shabaab group during an attempted attack on a senior official.

The Islamists have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for about two years. They launch guerrilla strikes in the capital almost daily and control most of the south, including a town just 14 kilometers from Mogadishu.

Islamist leaders deny allegations they collude with pirates and insist they will stamp down on them if they win power, citing a crackdown when they ruled the south briefly in 2006. Some analysts, however, say Islamist militants are benefiting from the spoils of piracy and arms shipments facilitated by the sea gangs. Analysts also accuse government figures of collaboration with pirates.

Source: Reuters

Somalis in Australia quizzed over pirate links

VICTORIA Police's secret intelligence unit is investigating possible links between Somali pirates and Melbourne's 10,000-strong Somali community.

Community members are being quizzed about their knowledge of pirate groups in Somalia and have been asked to provide any information that may assist negotiations to release some of the 250 crew members currently held hostage in that country.

The investigation, by the police Security Intelligence Group, began in September and has been stepped up this week following the brazen hijacking of the oil supertanker Sirius Star -- the largest ship ever captured by pirates.

The Sirius is the 95th ship to be attacked in the waters off Somalia and East Africa so far this year and the 39th to be hijacked, including nine in the past two weeks.

Detective Senior Constable Simon Artz told The Weekend Australian yesterday: "We areseeing whether anyone in Australia's Somali community has contact with anyone related to the pirates themselves and might be able to supply us with information.

"If we get information, then we can supply federal agencies, which may then be in a position to assist with any negotiations internationally."

Melbourne has one of the largest concentrations of Somalis outside Africa. About 10,000 -- half of Australia's total Somali population -- live in the city.

Many of these immigrants maintain close contact with relatives in Somalia, raising the prospect that some have connections to those involved in the burgeoning piracy industry.

The Security Intelligence Group began investigating possible links with pirates in September after the capture of the Ukrainian arms ship Faina, carrying 33 T72 Russian tanks.

The president of the Somali community of Victoria, Abdurahman Jama Osman, said he did not know anyone in Australia who had links to the pirates.

"Even if they did know any pirates, they will never tell you," he said. "I don't believe that one person from the Somali community will be happy about what these pirates are doing."

One of the Somali community's most respected leaders, Isse Musse, said that although the community did not support the pirates' actions, it could understand them.

"Many believe the pirates are expressing their anger at the international community for abandoning Somalia to its fate for close to 20 years," Sheik Musse said. "People here are saying, 'Well, this is the natural outcome of such a thing'.

"They are not supporting this (piracy) but they can understand why this happened."

Sheik Musse said piracy was being fuelled by the fact that foreign vessels had fished illegally in Somali waters for many years, robbing local fishermen of their livelihoods and forcing them toresort to other ways to make aliving.

"The only solution is for the international community to fix Somalia properly," he said.

"They are putting all their effort into the Congo, but none into Somalia."

Source: The Australian

Pirates 'earned $150m this year'

Somali pirates have been paid more than $150m (£101m) in ransoms in the past 12 months, Kenya's foreign minister says.

"That is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Moses Wetangula said, urging the world to take urgent action.

He said it was affecting all countries involved in international trade.

Ninety-five attacks have been recorded off the Somali coast this year, including the recent capture of a Saudi tanker carrying a $100m cargo of oil.

A reported ransom demand of $25m (£17m) for the MV Sirius Star was denied by the company conducting the negotiations with the pirates on behalf of the tanker owners.

Shipping experts expect the demand to be much higher.

A spokesman for the shipping industry in London, Pat Adamson, told the BBC there would be pressure from some quarters on the Saudis not to pay up as it would only lead to further hijackings.

What was needed, he said, was for the navies in the area to go after the pirates' "mother ships" that were far out to sea, remove their armaments, and sink them.

Otherwise, he said, it was only a matter of time before another super-tanker was hijacked.

An Indian warship sank one "mother ship" this week.

'Act now'

Mr Wetangula told a meeting of regional diplomats in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that piracy was getting worse.

"Major trading countries - India, Malaysia, China - your vessels are in danger. Our major trading partners - Germany, Britain and others - our cargo is in danger," he said.
"We must act now and not tomorrow."

The United States says it is seeking clarification at the United Nations on how much force should be used to deal with the pirates threatening international shipping.

The UN Security Council is due to renew a six-month-old resolution specifying the terms under which foreign navies can pursue pirates into Somali waters

Several navies have already engaged in battles against the pirates.

The Indian navy said one of its frigates sank a pirate ship and British and Russian ships have exchanged fire with pirate vessels.

"We're taking a look with other countries as to how we might modify that resolution to better enable responsible state naval assets to deal with the issue of piracy in the region, which has very real economic implications," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

'Well treated'

Meanwhile, the MV Sirius Star and its crew, which includes two Britons, are being held near the Somali port of Harardhere.

The BBC's Frank Gardner says the 25-member crew are believed to be being well treated.

He says negotiations between the pirates and the ship's Saudi owners are being conducted through an interpreter on a satellite phone using an outside company that specialises in dealing with kidnaps and ransom demands.

Sailors seized by Somali pirates usually have to wait 45 days or more for the ships' owners to pay the ransom and win their release, he says.

But sources in Harardhere say the pirates and tanker crew are eager to conclude a deal far sooner than that.

On Thursday, Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping firms, announced that some of its fleet, mainly tankers, would no longer use the Gulf of Aden unless there were more naval escorted convoys.

Travelling around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope instead of taking a short cut via the Suez Canal, would add several weeks to average journey times and substantially increase the cost of goods for consumers.

Source: BBC