Security forces of northern Somalia's semi autonomous region of Puntland have stormed and seized control of a Panama-flagged cargo ship from pirates who had hijacked the vessel last Thursday, said officials on Tuesday.
Deputy Seaport Minister in the government of the Somali semiautonomous region, Abdiqadir Muse Geele, said Tuesday that the security forces seized control of the container ship, the Awail, in a military operation in which one soldier was killed and three others wounded.
He said that the pirates surrendered after they ran out of ammunition and added that no hostages or pirates were hurt in the operation.
Geele said that the eleven crew members of the vessel, including nine Syrians and two Somalis, were safe and added that the security forces arrested 10 pirates who were on board the vessel.
Also on Tuesday, the deadline issued by the pirates who had hijacked a Ukrainian vessel in September with Russian arms on board passed with out incident. They had threatened to blow up the vessel early Tuesday if their demands were not.
The U.S. navy said that the deadline passed without incident and added that the MV Faina, with a crew of 20 on board, is still in one piece. Earlier, a spokesman for the pirates had said Monday that they were considering extending the set deadline.
After the Ukrainian ship was hijacked in September, as many as 10 foreign naval vessels, including USS Howard of the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, have surrounded the hijacked vessel to prevent it from unloading its dangerous cargo.
The coast of Somalia has been affected by piracy in the recent months and more than thirty pirate attacks were reported in the country's waters since the beginning of 2008. Generally, the crew and the vessels are returned unharmed on receiving the demanded ransom.
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