Pirates aboard Libyan vessel fire on Somaliland forces

[Jacaylbaro]

A shoot-out erupted Thursday between pirates who seized a North Korean-flagged, Libyan-owned ship and coast guards in Somalia's breakaway Somaliland region, leaving one soldier dead, police said.

 

It was not clear what sparked the gunfight near Lasqorey, a coastal village which lies in area disputed by the Horn of Africa's northern self-declared states of Somaliland and Puntland.

 

"Pirates holding the cargo ship opened fire on our coast guards... They exchanged fire while heading to Lasqorey," Abdirisak Yusuf Aseyr, a Somaliland regional police chief, told AFP by phone.

 

Local elders said the pirates later anchored the cargo vessel off Lasqorey.

 

"It's about 10 kilometres (six miles) away from the coast now and there are about 30 of them (pirates) onboard the ship," said Mohamed Adan Dualeh, an elder.

 

The MV RIM, a general cargo vessel, was captured Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden north of the internationally recommended transit corridor.

 

The 4,800-tonne cargo ship owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya was not registered with the Horn of Africa Maritime Security Centre, the European Union Naval Force (NAVFOR) said.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

This actually happened inside Somaliland Coastal territory

 

Were are the pirates now

[Thankful]

Xaji_Xunjuf,

 

The article just said they are in Laasqoray??? :confused:

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

They probably left lasqoray hada

[Thankful]

That's what NW Somalia's regional police chief said they were heading for laaqoray and the local elders said they are docked there.

 

It seems that both sides are saying they are in laasqoray.

[Amistad]

you guys need to change the news you read. The MV Rim was freed yesterday by a Danish NATO Warship.

 

The ships crew had locked themselves in the bridge, and the pirates could not get access. When the Danish approached the ship, the pirates escaped.

[Amistad]

my mistake:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8500611.stm

 

WORLD BRIEFING | AFRICA

Somalia: Danish Soldiers Foil Pirate Takeover

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 5, 2010

Danish special forces disrupted a takeover of a cargo ship by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, in a maneuver rarely undertaken by NATO warships. The crew of the cargo ship, Ariella, saw a skiff approaching with six or seven men firing at them, said Cmdr. Dan B. Termansen, the commander of the Danish warship Absalon. The captain sent out a distress call. The Absalon sent a helicopter, and its crew fired warning shots at the pirates, Commander Termansen said.