Saudi-owned crude oil supertanker
"Sirius Star" is seen in this photograph taken in Rotterdam on October 17,
2008. Pirates who hijacked the Sirius Star off the east coast of Africa
are taking the vessel towards a Somali port, the U.S. Navy said on Nov.
17, 2008. Picture taken October 17, 2008. The hijacked Saudi-owned
supertanker has anchored off the coast of northeastern Somalia.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo
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NAIROBI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Somali pirates who
hijacked a Saudi Arabian supertanker moved the vessel from its location at the
port city of Harardhere to an unknown location, a regional maritime official
disclosed here Monday.
Andrew Mwangura, East Africa's Coordinator of the
Seafarers Assistance Program said the tanker was taken out to high sea and its
destination is not clear.
"The pirates moved the Saudi oil tanker to high seas
but I have not established its destination. The pirates may have feared they
could be attacked by the Islamist groups in Somalia," Mwangura told Xinhua by
telephone.
Mwangura's remarks came as Somali pirates holding the
Sirius Star, laden with 2 million barrels of oil worth about 100 million U.S.
dollars near Harardhere have reduced their ransom demands from 25 million
dollars to 15 million dollars.
The pirates had acted after threats from Al-Shabaab,
an Islamist group, to attack the tanker.
The pirates hijacked the vessel on Nov. 15 about 833
km off Somalia. Reports from Somalia say that Islamists from different Somali
factions are descending on the country's pirate coast, raising fears that a
battle is looming over millions of dollars in ransom cash being demanded for the
captured supertanker Sirius Star.
The vessel was sailing from the Gulf towards the Cape
of Good Hope. The route is heavily used by the largest crude oil tankers, which
are unable to use the Suez route and the route previously looked safe from
attacks.
The seizure of the Sirius Star has sparked off the
small dusty harbor of Harardhere into a flurry of activity with armed men
frequenting the town.
Harardhere is in Somalia's semi-autonomous northern
Puntland region. The country is in its 18th year of civil war and has not had a
functioning central administration since the ouster of former ruler Mohammed
Siad Barre in 1991.
BEIJING, Nov. 22
(Xinhua) -- Anarchy in Somalia, lack of a coordinated international strategy to
fight the kidnapping epidemic and a vicious ransom-weaponry cycle have resulted
in rampant piracies in the waters off Somali, analysts say.
Eyes across the world recently have been staring at the
Gulf of Aden, an area almost twice the size of Alaska flanked by Yemen and
Somalia, where Somali pirates are making newspaper headlines by capturing
several vessels within a few days including the largest oil tanker Sirius Star
ever kidnapped. Full story
BEIJING, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- With their Nov. 15 capture of the Sirius Star, one
of the world's largest oil tankers carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi oil, the
biggest vessel ever hijacked at sea, Somali pirates leaped into the global
spotlight, setting alarm bells ringing on the seriousness of the threat they
pose. Full story
BEIJING, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Attacks by pirates off the
coast of Somalia have fiercely intensified, with five vessels reportedly
hijacked in the past week, including Saudi-owned supertanker Sirius Star, the
largest vessel ever seized at sea.
On Wednesday, a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship was confirmed
to have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden near the coast of Yemen. Full story
BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry
was further checking the information about the hijack of a Chinese fishing ship
seized by Somali pirates, and would exert utmost effort to rescue the ship and
the crew aboard, according to the consular news released Friday evening by
Chinese Foreign Ministry on its web site.
Chinese Foreign Ministry was going to spare no effort to
rescue the seized ship and the crew aboard, in coordination with relevant
organizations and Chinese overseas representative offices, according to the
news. Full story
BEIJING, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Attacks by pirates off the
coast of Somalia have fiercely intensified, with five vessels reportedly
hijacked in the past week, including Saudi-owned supertanker Sirius Star, the
largest vessel ever seized at sea.
On Wednesday, a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship was confirmed
to have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden near the coast of Yemen. Full story
