Pirates fight over British hostages

AP

KIDNAPPED: Paul and Rachel Chandler were headed to Tanzania in their boat, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent October 23.

Relevant offers

Africa

Lioness kills zoo worker in South Africa A year since Mubarak ousted, strike call shows divisions Gaddafi's son warns of uprising Bungled conservation effort kills Sth African rhino Libyan refugees killed in camp Egypt to try 19 Americans in case straining ties Catching malaria comes with the job Four more dead in ongoing Egypt violence Police shoot protesters in Suez - report Egyptians incensed after 74 die in football tragedy

Rival pirates and militia groups are fighting for control over a British couple held hostage for more than a week, an Islamic militia commander and a local elder claim.

The couple was not injured in the fighting.

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 Ilka'ase.

"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 two are now in the coastal areas and travelling 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 US$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.

US CARGO SHIP ATTACKED

Also on Monday, American-flagged cargo vessel the MV Harriette came under gunfire from pirates aboard two skiffs about 360 nautical miles off Mombasa, Kenya, Lt Nate Christensen said.

The pirates - about six in each craft - came within a metre 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.

The attack came a day after a Norwegian warship clashed with suspected Somali pirates, the European Union's anti-piracy force said.

A statement from the force said a team from Norwegian warship HNOMS Fridjof Nansen on Sunday went to talk to the crew of four fishing boats near Alula, a northeastern Somali coastal village known for piracy.

The crew on the first three boats co-operated but when the Norwegian team approached the fourth boat, shots were fired at them. The team fired in self-defence  and retreated to avoid further violence, the statement said.

- AP