Pirates drown with ransom money

MOMBASA, Kenya, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Six Somali pirates drowned with a share of the booty shortly after the owners of a hijacked Saudi oil supertanker paid a $3 million ransom, their leader said.

"The small boat that was carrying those killed and eight who survived was overloaded ... . They were afraid of a chase from outsiders (foreign navies of the combined maritime forces)," their leader, Mohamed Said, told The Times in a telephone interview from the port of Harardhere.

Said said the pirates were both "full of joy" with their success and "partially frightened by the presence of foreign war machines and were speeding. That was a tragedy for the pirates."

Andrew Mwangura, head of the Seafarers' Assistance Program in Mombasa, Kenya, said the freed ship, the Sirius Star, and its 25 crew members were heading toward international waters once more under the command of its captain, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

"No one has been harmed," Mwangura told the newspaper.

Unnamed Somali sources said the $3 million ransom was attached to a float and parachuted close to the Sirius Star from a light aircraft. Then, despite last-minute disagreements among the pirates over how the loot was to be divided, the gunmen left the ship.

They had originally demanded $26 million from the ship's owner, Vela International Marine, a subsidiary of the Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco, which refused to comment to the Telegraph on the ship's release or any ransom payments.

Several dozen well-armed raiders had held the tanker and its 25-member crew since November.