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Bosasso, Somalia: The Pakistani crew members of a hijacked, UAE flagged ship said yesterday they were lucky to be alive after being tricked and captured by Somali pirates then rescued in a shootout at sea.
Alia Akbar, second-in-command of Al Khaleej, told Reuters seven pirates posing as thirsty fishermen in dire need of drinking water came alongside on Monday only to hijack the ship at gunpoint after being allowed on board.
"We let in three of them. Suddenly four others, who were armed, boarded the ship. They then ordered the captain to change course and took us between Mukalah [in Yemen] and Dubai. They held us there at sea all night," he said.
Storming of the ship
On Tuesday, scores of security officers from the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland stormed the ship and engaged the pirates in a gunbattle that lasted for an hour, rescuing the 16 crew members and arresting the pirates.
"The pirates stopped us at first and asked for drinking water," Akbar, 27, told Reuters, speaking throughout a Somali translator on behalf of the crew. "The troops came in the morning, before the pirates had asked us for any ransom."
When the pirates came on board, the Pakistani crew scattered and tried to hide in various parts of the cargo ship that had been en route from Dubai to Puntland.
But they were all found by the pirates, who promised not to hurt them. The rescue was terrifying, Akbar said.
"In the morning many troops on two speedboats surrounded our ship. Then the shootout started. It was really frightening. The pirates surrendered after three of them were wounded. I can't believe we are free. It was a nightmare," he said, smiling.
Lawless waters
Akbar, who spoke standing near the ship at Puntland's Bosasso port, said it was the crew's first encounter with pirates after five years sailing in the region.
A surge in maritime hijackings for ransom in the waters off the coast of lawless Somalia have made it one of the world's most dangerous shipping zones.
Al Khaleej will now offload its cargo - food, cars and fuel - in two days and sail back to Dubai to bring in more supplies under escort next time by Puntland authorities.
Another ship, a Spanish tuna fishing vessel, was hijacked over the weekend and is still held by pirates in Garad, a remote coastal town in the Indian Ocean waters off southeast Puntland.
Somali authorities said on Tuesday they had sent forces to try and release the boat. And Spain has sent one of its frigates, and its ambassador in Kenya, to try and rescue it.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said no ransom demand had been received yet.
"First we have to hear what they are asking for, what they want," he said on television in Spain.
Puntland, a relatively peaceful region in northern Somalia, runs itself independently from the chaotic south of the Horn of Africa country where government troops and their Ethiopian allies face an Iraqi-style insurgency.
Resolution to fight pirates
The rescue mission was the second against pirates operating from the lawless country this month after French commandos swooped to arrest six in the same area.
France and the United States, with the help of Britain, are drafting a UN Security Council resolution authorising countries to fight piracy off Somalia and elsewhere, France's UN envoy said on Tuesday.
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