Hijacked Saudi tanker reaches Somalia

By Abdiqani Hassan

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the world's biggest ship hijacking reached Somalia on Tuesday, and another ship was captured in the perilous waters off the lawless state.

The U.S. navy said pirates had transported the Sirius Star -- seized 450 nautical miles southeast off Kenya at the weekend in the boldest strike to date by Somali pirates -- to Haradheere port half-way up the Horn of Africa nation's long coastline.

"At this time, Vela is awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel," said Dubai-based owner Vela International, shipping arm of state oil giant Saudi Aramco.

Vela said the crew -- two Britons, two Poles, one Croatian, one Saudi and 19 Filipinos -- were believed to be safe and that their safety was the operator's top priority.

"The Saudi ship has anchored at a port near Haradheere, in Mudug central region," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, Puntland's assistant minister for fisheries told Reuters.

Increasingly brazen pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters off Somalia has driven up insurance costs, forced some ships to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and secured millions of dollars in ransoms.

The capture of the Star is one of the most spectacular strikes in maritime history.

"It looks like a deliberate two fingers from some very bright Somalis. Anyone who describes them as a bunch of camel herders needs to think again," one Somalia analyst said.

The seizure was carried out despite an international naval response, including from the NATO alliance and European Union, to protect one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

U.S, French and Russian warships are also off Somalia.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said his country would throw its weight behind a European-led initiative to step up security in shipping lanes off Africa's east coast.

"This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy," he said.

But, underlining the difficulty of containing the problem, a Hong Kong-flagged ship loaded with grain and bound for Iran was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

The Delight, with 25 crew members on board, was captured off the Yemen coast and is currently sailing toward Somalia, an official at Hong Kong's Maritime Rescue Coordination Center told Reuters by telephone.

NIGERIAN 'MOTHER-SHIP'?