Somali forces vow to rescue hijacked Yemeni ship

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By Abdiqani Hassan

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali security forces will storm a hijacked Yemeni cargo ship if the pirates holding it refuse to free it without a ransom, a minister in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region said on Wednesday.

Gunmen seized the MV Adina and its seven crew in the Gulf of Aden last week in the latest of scores of attacks this year that have brought the sea gangs millions of dollars in ransoms.

The crime wave has hiked up shipping insurance costs, sent foreign warships rushing to the area, and left about a dozen vessels with more than 200 hostages still in pirate hands.

"We will release the hijacked Yemen ship forcibly if they do not release it without a ransom because we have good relations with Yemen," Ali Abdi Aware, state minister for Puntland, told Reuters. "Now we are preparing our troops."

The MV Adina, owned by Yemeni shipping firm Abu Talal, was carrying 507 tonnes of steel from Yemen's Mukalla port to the Socotra island, where it had been due to dock on November 20.

Yemeni security sources said it had seven crew on board -- three Somalis, two Yemenis and two Panamanians -- and that the pirates holding it were demanding a $2 million (1 million pound) ransom.

Puntland forces rescued a Panama-flagged ship, the Wail, and arrested 10 pirates during a gun battle and raid in mid-October.

Maritime security experts say rescuing hijacked ships at sea without harming crew members held hostage is very difficult.

On Wednesday, an anti-piracy watchdog said a Somali pirate "mother ship" sunk by the Indian navy last week was actually a Thai ship carrying fishing equipment that was being hijacked.

Most successful have been French military forces, who captured six pirates onshore in April, shortly after a ransom had been paid for the release of a French yacht and its 30 crew.

On September 16, French commandos stormed another luxury yacht to rescue two French tourists being held for ransom by pirates.

The seizure of the Yemeni cargo ship came 11 days after heavily-armed Somali gunmen captured a Saudi Arabian supertanker in history's biggest maritime hijacking.

The November 15 capture of the Sirius Star -- loaded with oil worth $100 million and 25 crew from Britain, Poland, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines -- has focussed world attention on the dangers in the Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.

More than a dozen foreign warships are in the area trying to tackle the buccaneers and guard shipping, but analysts warn that the range the pirates operate in is enormous.

Piracy has flourished off Somalia thanks to chaos onshore. The nation of 9 million people has been mired in perpetual civil conflict since 1991 when warlords toppled a dictator.

(Writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Michael Roddy)

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