Somali Pirates Release Hijacked Ship
‘Soldiers of a regional government, with guns blazing, freed a cargo ship Tuesday that pirates had held off the Somali coast for five days, according to an official from the region,’ Fox News reported Tuesday.
‘The ship and the 11 crew members — nine Syrians and two Somalis — were freed after a gunbattle in which one soldier was killed and three wounded, said Deputy Seaport Minister Abdiqadir Muse Geele. No hostages or pirates were hurt, Geele said.’
‘The 10 pirates who had held the ship since Thursday surrendered when they ran out of ammunition, said Geele, who is a deputy minister in the government of the northern Somalia semiautonomous region of Puntland.’
Meanwhile, U.S. officials said the pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian ship weeks ago, did not follow through on their threat to blow up the ship unless ransom was paid before midnight on Tuesday.
For now, it seems that the zero tolerance approach of the countries involved is working rather well. Unlike extremist terrorists, these Somali pirates are not driven by ideology but greed. They want to hijack ships, and sell the products they are carrying. They don’t want to be killed by U.S., Russian or other soldiers.
The countries involved know this, and can count on it that if the Somali pirates believe they may get off free, or at least alive, if they only hand over the ship, its crew and other content, they’ll agree to a deal. These people aren’t prepared to blow themselves up, if the U.S., Somali government and Russia promise them they will not be attacked if they surrender the ship. They could be taken captive and locked up in jail for some years, but that is preferable to those who act out of greed to being shot, or blown apart.
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