Troops from Somalia's Puntland region rescue hostages from hijacked ship 23 Dec 23, 2012 - 9:01:54 PM
NAIROBI, Kenya Dec. 23 – Authorities in Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region say their forces raided a hijacked ship and safely rescued 22 hostages who had been held captive for nearly three years.
A statement from the Puntland government said Saturday their forces captured the Panama-flagged MV Iceberg 1 which was docked near the Gara'ad coastal village in Mudung region.
Puntland Ports and Anti-piracy Minister Saeed Mohamed Rage told the Associated Press the crew members include eight Yemenis, five Indians, two Pakistanis, four Ghanaians, two Sudanese, and a Philippine. The ship was hijacked March 29, 2010.
Close to 120 seafarers are still held by Somali pirates, though that number is considerably down from the height of the piracy crisis, when more than 600 hostages were held at once.
