Pirates free Ukraine ship

KIEV – A merchant ship carrying tanks and weapons held by pirates off the coast of Somalia since September has been freed, Ukraine’s president announced yesterday.

A spokesman for the owners of the MV Faina said on Wednesday that a ransom was paid on to the pirates. The brief statement from the office of President Viktor Yushchenko did not refer to a ransom, but said the ship was freed as the result of an operation involving special-services agents from Ukraine.The Faina is loaded with military hardware and there had been fears the arms would fall into the hands of al Qaeda-backed Somali insurgents.Presidential spokeswoman Irina Vannikova was quoted as telling Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency that ‘the ship is now under the guard of forces of the U.S. navy and is preparing to head for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.’One of the pirates told The Associated Press by satellite telephone that some of the pirates remained on board.’We are not holding it (the ship) now anymore,’ said Aden Abdi Omar, one of those who left the ship. ‘But our men should disembark first for it to move to wherever it wants.’The US Navy said it appeared the ransom was dropped on Wednesday.Mikhail Voitenko, a spokesman for the ship’s owner, said the pirates had received a ransom on Wednesday. He did not say how much was paid, but ITAR-Tass news agency put it at $3.2 million. The pirates originally demanded $20 million.The MV Faina carrying a cargo of tanks, other weaponry and about 20 mostly Ukrainian crew members was seized by bandits in September off the Somali coast. Ships of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet surrounded it to be sure the cargo did not get into the hands of Somali insurgent groups linked to al Qaeda. – Nampa-AP

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