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Las Qoray, Somaliland, February 06, 2010 – A shoot-out erupted Thursday
between pirates who seized a North Korean-flagged, Libyan-owned ship and
coast guards in Somaliland, leaving one soldier dead, police said.
It was not clear what sparked the gunfight near Lasqorey, a coastal
village which lies in area disputed by the Horn of Africa's northern
self-declared states of Somaliland and Puntland.
"Pirates holding the cargo ship opened fire on our coast guards... They
exchanged fire while heading to Lasqorey," Abdirisak Yusuf Aseyr, a
Somaliland regional police chief, told AFP by phone.
Local elders said the pirates later anchored the cargo vessel off
Lasqorey.
"It's about 10 kilometres (six miles) away from the coast now and there
are about 30 of them (pirates) onboard the ship," said Mohamed Adan
Dualeh, an elder.
The MV RIM, a general cargo vessel, was captured Wednesday in the Gulf
of Aden north of the internationally recommended transit corridor.
The 4,800-tonne cargo ship owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya was not
registered with the Horn of Africa Maritime Security Centre, the
European Union Naval Force (NAVFOR) said.
Source: AFP
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