By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
No solution to their $20 million ransom demand for the cargo ship Faina was yet in sight.
"We are happy on the ship and we are celebrating Eid," pirate spokesman Sugule Ali told The Associated Press by satellite phone. "Nothing has changed."
Ali did not say whether the ship's crew would be included in the feast that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. One of the 21 crew members has died, of an apparent heart attack.
Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said there was an unconfirmed report that three Somali pirates were killed Monday night in a dispute over whether to surrender, but he said he had not spoken to any witnesses.
But the pirate spokesman insisted that was not true.
"We didn't dispute over a single thing, let alone have a shootout," Ali told the AP.
There was no way to independently verify either account. The U.S. 5th Fleet also said it had no new information to report Tuesday on the six-day standoff.
Elsewhere in Somalia, pirates freed a Malaysian tanker Tuesday after a ransom was paid, according to a Malaysian shipping company.
The blue-and-white Ukrainian ship Faina has been buzzed by American helicopters since Sunday. Pirates hijacked the Faina and its cargo of 33 Soviet-designed tanks and weapons Thursday while the ship was passing through the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Source: Reuters, Sept 30, 2008