Three Pirates Killed in Fight Over Ransom
The gunbattle took place in the pirate-infested town of Haradhere after the group who hijacked Greek-flagged supertanker fought over how to share the ransom, elders said.
One local elder, Hussein Isse Gutale, contacted by telephone, described how tensions were running high in Haradhere and then violence broke out when "rival pirates fought" over the ransom from the Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus.
"We are engaging to calm the situation since both sides are still hunting each other," Gutale told dpa. "So far three of them died in the gun battle."
On Monday, the pirates released the tanker and its crew of 28, a day after a massive ransom - believed to have been between 5.5 and 7 million dollars - was paid via an air-drop.
The Maran Centaurus, with a crew of 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and a Romanian, was hijacked on November 29 last year about 750 nautical miles north-east of Seychelles.
The tanker, owned by Athens-based Maran Tankers Management Inc, was carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States when it was seized.
