24 Sep 2009

Pirates have killed the Syrian captain of a Panama-flagged ship off the coast of Somalia, in a failed attempt to hijack the vessel.

The bandits boarded the Barwaqo near Mogadishu's port on Thursday, but were met with fierce resistance from the captain of the vessel, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"The pirates killed the captain after he refused to turn the ship. Usually, we send police when commercial ships draw near the port but the pirates were already on board and opened fire injuring one policeman," Abdiasis Hassan, a Somali Minister for ports, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

African Union peacekeeping troops and Somali police rescued the ship and managed to kill seven pirates and sink one of the boats used by the bandits, officials told Press TV.

"The captain was a Syrian and his body is at the port now," Ahmed Abdi, a port official, told Reuters.

presstv