Somali forces storm hijacked Dubai ship, arrest pirates

"Somalia"

04/22/2008

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Security forces in northern Somalia stormed a hijacked ship Tuesday, rescuing hostages and arresting seven pirates, officials said.

The Dubai-flagged ship, called the al-Khaleej, originated from the United Arab Emirates and was seized Monday, said Abdullahi Said Samatar, security affairs minister in Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region.

It was not immediately clear how many people were on board. Puntland officials announced it had been seized only after the boat was rescued.

"Our forces rescued a small commercial boat hijacked on Monday off the coast of Bossaso town," Samatar told The Associated Press. "Three were injured in the operation and seven others will be brought to justice."

Piracy is rampant off Somalia's coast. The United States and France are drafting a U.N. resolution that would allow countries to chase and arrest pirates off Somalia's coast, responding to a spate of attacks including this week's hijacking of a Spanish tuna boat.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the resolution would authorize foreign governments to pursue pirate vessels into territorial waters, make arrests, and prosecute suspects.

"We want to do it fast, but it could take one or two weeks because it has to be by consensus - it's not confrontational," he told the Associated Press.

The push by key U.N. Security Council nations to tackle the issue follows an alarming increase in piracy by well-armed bandits, prompting international demands for better protection of the world's shipping lanes.

Pirates in the lawless Gulf of Aden off Somalia fired on a Japanese oil tanker Monday, unleashing hundreds of gallons of fuel into the sea, a day after a Spanish tuna boat was hijacked using rocket-propelled grenades. Earlier this month, a French luxury yacht was hijacked.

"The issue of piracy is an important issue, and within that framework we're focusing in particular on the threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told The Associated Press.