Tanker released after $3m ransom

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali pirates released an oil-laden Saudi supertanker after receiving a $3 million ransom, a negotiator for the bandits said yesterday. A photo appeared to show the money delivered by parachute to the ship's deck.

The MV Sirius Star, a new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized in the Indian Ocean Nov. 15 in a dramatic escalation of the high seas piracy that has plagued the shipping lanes off Somalia. The supertanker's 2 million barrels of crude oil has been valued at $100 million.

Mohamed Said, a negotiator with the pirates that held the Saudi tanker, told the Associated Press by telephone the ship had been released.

The US Navy issued a photo taken yesterday by one of its air crew of a parachute apparently dropping the ransom from a small aircraft to the Sirius.

The ship owner, Vela International Marine Ltd., declined to comment on the reported release. But Poland, which has some of its nationals among the tanker's crew, said it had official confirmation from the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Kenya that the Sirius Star had been released by the hijackers.

A Western diplomat based in Nairobi also said the ship was free, citing the International Maritime Organization. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain would not explicitly confirm the release of the tanker. But Lieutenant Virginia Newman, a spokeswoman for the Combined Maritime Forces based in Bahrain, said it was likely that "a considerable sum" had been paid in ransom and that "It is expected that the ship will get underway in the next 24 hours."

The tanker was hijacked more than 500 miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. That is far south of where warships have recently increased their patrols in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest channels in the world, leading to and from the Suez Canal, and the scene of most past attacks.

The US Navy said Thursday that a new international naval force under American command will soon begin patrols to confront escalating attacks by Somali pirates after more than 100 ships came under siege in the past year. But the mission - expected to begin operations next week - appears more of an attempt to sharpen the military focus against piracy rather than a signal of expanded offensives.