Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Three pirates and a civilian were killed in the latest bout of fighting that erupted in the town of Harardhere late on Monday, elders and pirates told AFP by phone.
Tension has been high in the central Somali pirate lair ever since an estimated US$7 million (S$9.73 million) were dropped by a small plane on Sunday for the release of the VLCC Maran Centaurus, a Greek-flagged supertanker a third of a kilometre long and carrying two million barrels of crude oil.
'The situation is calm this morning but there is still tension between the pirates. Three of them, including a senior pirate leader, were killed so far and three others were injured,' local elder Moalim Abdalla Hasan told AFP.
According to Ecoterra International, an environmentalist NGO monitoring illegal maritime activity in the region, the pirates received up to US$9 million in at least two separate payments.
Upward of US$7 million dollars were dropped on the deck of the Maran Centaurus on Sunday and the rest paid by cash transfer.
Source: AFP