Mogadishu 03,Nov.07 ( Sh.M.Network)-Pirates on Sunday released 22 sailors and a Comoran-flagged cargo vessel seized off the Somali coast more than six weeks ago, the US Navy said.

The MV Al Marjan and its mostly Asian crew was seized on October 19 as it sailed to Mogadishu port from Dubai.

"The ship was released a couple of hours ago off the coast of Central Somalia," Commander Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, told AFP.

Robertson said the USS Whidbey Island, a dock landing ship, had provided medicine, food and other assistance to the crew since their release.

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said a ransom was probably involved. "We are only waiting to be told how much was paid," Mwangura told AFP.

Pirates on fast launches or disguised as fishing and sailing vessels have made millions of dollars from victims in international shipping lanes in recent years, he said.

Robertson said the Japanese tanker, Golden Nori, which is carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of inflammable benzene, is the last vessel held by pirates off Somalia. There have been up to 30 vessels held over the past month.

The Golden Nori was kidnapped on October 28 with 23 crew from Myanmar, the Philippines and South Korea.

A US-led maritime task force made of Italy, the Netherlands and Britain is conducting counter-piracy operations off the volatile Horn of Africa.

"Coalition forces (will continue to) conduct maritime security operations ... to ensure security and safety in international waters so that all commercial shipping can operate freely while transiting the region," Robertson said.

Last week, the International Maritime Organisation asked the Somali government to allow foreign warships and military aircraft to venture into its territory to combat piracy.

In theory, a 1992 UN arms embargo on Somalia bars foreign armies from entering Somali waters.

Commander Keith Winstanley, the British deputy commander of the international fleet of 46 ships from 20 nations, off Somalia said it had been impossible to halt piracy because the seized vessels are often held "somewhere in the vicinity of the Somali coast."

Rampant piracy off Somalia stopped briefly during the strict rule of an Islamist movement in the second half of 2006, but resumed after Ethiopian and Somali government troops ousted the Islamists at the end of 2006.

Numerous attacks have occurred this year off Somalia's 3,700 kilometre (2,300 mile) coastline, prompting the International Maritime Bureau to advise sailors to steer clear of the coast.

Somalia lies at the mouth of the Red Sea on a major trade route between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal. It has not had a functional government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

(AFP)

Shabelle Media Network Somalia
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