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South Korea navy rescues Samho Jewelry crew from pirates


Friday, 21 January 2011 02:20

South Korea navy rescues Samho Jewelry crew from pirates South Korean commandos have stormed a tanker which had been seized by pirates in the Arabian Sea. All 21 crew members of the South Korean-owned Samho Jewelry were rescued.

"Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Col Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. All crews on board the chemical tanker are safe except captain who was shot to his stomach, AFP reported. The rescue took place about 1,300km (800 miles) off northeast Somalia, Lee said.

The navy said eight pirates had been killed and five captured.

The Yonhap news agency said the Korean navy's Cheonghae destroyer had approached the Samho Jewelry after the pirates left the vessel to hijack a Mongolian ship nearby.

Samho Jewelry was seized on 15 January about 350 n-miles southeast of Muscat, Oman. The Maltese-flagged ship is carrying chemicals and has crew members from Myanmar, South Korea and Indonesia. The vessel had not registered with local anti-piracy authorities, EU NAVFOR said.