November 4, 2009 - The Daily Star - Rival Somali groups fight over captured British couple

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Rival pirates and militia groups have fought for control of a British couple held hostage for more than a week, an Islamic militia commander and a local elder said. The couple were not injured in the fighting. Also on Monday, a US-flagged cargo vessel with 21 Americans aboard came under gunfire from suspected Somali pirates but managed to escape, a US Navy spokesman said.

Elders sent local fighters to thwart an attempt by some of the pirates holding the couple to take them to an extremist Islamic group, said a commander of a rival moderate Islamic militia who gave his name only as Ilkaase.

“We did not want the pirates to use our territory to hold hostages or hand them over to another group. We took up arms with the help of [the moderate Islamic group] Ahlu Sunna Waljama and opposed” the other group, said Hussein Mohamed Kahiye, a clan elder in the central Somali village of Bahdo.

It was not possible to independently verify the reported fight over the British couple. The couple had been held on a ship at sea, but Kahiye said the couple and their escort were now in the coastal areas and traveling in two minibuses and an all-terrain vehicle.

A pirate claiming to speak on behalf of the group holding the British couple had said on Saturday that they want a $7 million ransom to release Paul and Rachel Chandler. The British government has said it would not pay a ransom.

The Chandlers were headed to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent October 23. The British Navy found their empty yacht last Thursday, and the Chandlers have been in sporadic contact with the British media since.

Also Monday, the MV Harriette was targeted by pirates aboard two skiffs about 634 kilometers off Mombasa, Kenya, Lieutenant Nate Christensen said.

The pirates – about six in each craft – came within a meter of the cargo vessel but were unable to board, Christensen said from US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

No one on the US ship was injured, he said, and no other details of the incident were available from the US Navy, which is part of anti-piracy patrols off the Horn of Africa.

A security officer with Sealift Inc., the company that operates the MV Harriette, said the captain steered the ship to prevent the pirates getting on board and drew fire from the pirates.

The captain, “was able to turn away from the boat [and] maneuver to keep the small boats far away, so that they could not get a ladder on the [MV Harriette],” said John Belle from the Sealift Inc. headquarters in New York.

“After they attempted to board and they were unsuccessful … they did fire. No one was injured. Some of the rounds hit the lifeboat of the ship,” Belle said. He said the attack ended within 25 minutes.

Belle said the Harriette has a 21-member crew who are all Americans. The ship had recently offloaded US food aid at the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Mohamed Olad Hassan

Associated Press