Sunday, May 3, 2009

Cold War between 2 super powahs heats up



Cold war between 2 supah powers heats up

MOGADISHU: Somali pirates hijacked another ship, a Pakistani-owned vessel carrying goods for Somali traders, over the weekend, a pirate commander and a local businessman told AFP Sunday.
The MV Al-Misan was captured around 100 kilometres off the capital Mogadishu, Ahmed Abdi, a pirate commander in the coastal village of Harardhere said.
According to elders and traders in the region, it was transporting vehicles and commodities such as sugar and cooking oil for Somali traders and had been sailing from the United Arab Emirates.
‘One of the two ships we hijacked yesterday is confirmed to have been chartered by Somali traders and there are already talks to release it. I think it will happen today,’ Ahmed Abdi told AFP by phone.
One Somali trader with a stake in the hijacked ship’s cargo said he was hopeful the vessel would be released soon.
‘There are efforts to free the ship and its crew, Somali traders and elders are already negotiating with the pirates and we are hopeful that they will soon release it,’ Abdullahi Moalim Barre told AFP.

The Al-Misan’s hijacking brings to at least 18 the number of vessels currently held by the ransom-hunting Somali buccaneers plying some of the globe’s busiest maritime trade routes in the Pakistani Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

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