Four Americans 'killed by Somali pirates'

Four Americans taken from their yacht in the Indian Ocean by Somali pirates have been shot dead, the US military has said. US naval forces on the way to try to rescue the Americans heard gunshots and on arrival found the four hostages had been killed.

Somali piracy threat worsening by the week, say shippers

Pirates leave a merchant vessel (not shown) for the Somali shore, while under observation by a US Navy ship, in this picture taken on October 8, 2008

Somali piracy is worsening by the week and governments lack the political will to tackle the crisis, which is threatening world trade routes, shipping industry officials said today.

Shippers have warned that more than 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil supply passes through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea and is at risk from seaborne gangs, who are able to operate ever further out to sea and for longer periods, using captured merchant vessels as motherships.






The hijacking of two oil tankers last week in the northern Indian Ocean has put the key oil transport route in the firing line.

“It is getting worse on a weekly basis,” Peter Hinchliffe, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, told Reuters Insider TV.

“This has been going on now for about three years. During that period of time we have seen a lack of political will to deal with the problem and contain it,” said Hinchliffe, whose association represents about 80 per cent of the global industry.

Pirate gangs are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, and despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, navies have been unable to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean because of the vast distances involved.

“We have very clearly got to the stage where ships which want to trade oil and energy up through the Arabian Gulf, there is no option now to avoid pirates in the region,” Howard Snaith, marine director with INTERTANKO, told Insider.

“They have the whole of the Indian Ocean pretty much pinned down,” said Snaith, whose members own the majority of the world’s tanker fleet.

The fight against piracy has been hampered by legal ambiguities over the appropriate venue to prosecute captured suspects. A UN envoy this month proposed special courts be set up rapidly in the Somali enclaves of Somaliland and Puntland, and in Tanzania, to try captured pirates.

Shipping industry officials said the human cost was also rising as around 800 seafarers are now held captive by Somali gangs. Pirates are using torture to force crew members to operate captured motherships.

“The industry is lobbying very hard together,” Hinchliffe said.

“There is a lot of inter-government discussion going on but there is a lack of determination to make sure that the warships are correctly able to arrest and prosecute in particular, but also to have some kind of interaction, to make sure that the mothership activity is limited.”

32 people including killed in Somali blast

Somali militants storm hotel, 31 dead includes MPs

Insurgents in army uniforms stormed a hotel in Mogadishu frequented by Somali government officials yesterday, killing at least 31 people including members of parliament.

The hardline al Shabaab Islamists who have been fighting for three years to oust the fragile Western-backed “transitional government,” and control most of the city, claimed the attack.

Mohamud Huusein, a civil servant who lived in the hotel, told Reuters the gunmen had pretended to be government soldiers and approached the hotel’s entrance, bragging of having beaten some rebel militiamen.

“The security guards moved forward smiling, and eager to hear more stories but they were floored with fire and the gunmen entered the hotel and fired into every room and hall,” he said.

Soldiers and locals move the body of a member of parliament killed during an armed attack on the Muna Hotel in Mogadishu, August 24, 2010.





“I jumped out through a window, like many others who survived in this way. Finally when they run out of bullets and the hotel was under siege by government soldiers, the two men had only one option, to blow themselves up.”

The assault, several hundred meters away from the president’s residence, underscored the failure of the government and more than 6,300 mostly Ugandan African Union peacekeepers to bring order after nearly two decades of anarchy, making Somalia a continual source of instability for east Africa.

Last month al Shabaab expanded its reach as far as Uganda, claiming a double suicide bombing of packed bars in the capital Kampala, to put pressure on it to pull its troops out.

Those attacks killed more than 70 people and jolted the African Union into increasing the peacekeeping contingent and considering giving it a mandate to fight the rebels.

Yesterday, al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told reporters in Mogadishu that its fighters had “carried out an operation at Hotel Muna” and succeeded in killing government and intelligence officials, MPs and civil servants.

The Information Ministry said the 31 dead included six legislators and five government security personnel.

“The blood of the dead is leaking out of the hotel,” Information Minister Abdirahman Osman said.

In a testament to the violence, the head of one of the gunmen was still outside the two-storey hotel late in the afternoon and the body of another, missing one hand and riddled with bullets, lay nearby, a Reuters witness said.

Workers cleaned the hotel floor with brushes stained red as they pushed bloody water toward the building’s entrance.

DISGUISED

The Muna Hotel stands in one of the small nominally government-controlled areas of the capital, between the presidential palace and the Indian Ocean.

Osman said one gunman had been captured. His ministry said two others blew themselves up, and that sporadic gunfire and shelling were continuing in the area.

“Some of the MPs had guns in their rooms and defended themselves before security forces arrived,” a government security source said.

Two days ago, the African Union announced the arrival of hundreds of new peacekeepers, mostly Ugandans, for the AMISOM mission to help the government in its battle against al Shabaab.

The force has so far been able to do little more than guard the airport and port and shield President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

Somalia’s members of parliament, the apparent targets of yesterday’s attack, do not benefit from this protection.

“We have the same enemies ... and I don’t know why the MPs don’t have the same security,” said pro-government lawmaker Abdiladif Muse Sanyare.

He was speaking from Nairobi, where many of the MPs say they have to live to feel safe, even at the risk of alienating ordinary citizens.

The security source said more than 300 armed al Shabaab fighters were thought to live in the supposedly government-controlled neighborhood.

“They disguise themselves as civilians running different smaller businesses and working in different restaurants and shops,” he said.

WESTERN FEARS

The insurgents control large areas of central and south Somalia, and have attracted a large number of foreign fighters to their cause.

Analysts agree that, despite their worries about Somalia serving as a base for international Islamist militancy, there is no appetite among Western powers to send forces to Somalia.

“What we are going to see is greater international support for AMISOM, more training of its soldiers and a lot in the way of indirect attempts to support the transitional government (TFG),” said Will Hartley, terrorism analyst at IHS Jane’s. “The international community is very much wedded to the TFG.”

In Massachusetts, John Brennan, assistant to US President Barack Obama for counterterrorism and homeland security, said Washington would “continue to work very closely with those in Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa and Somalia, who are interested in ensuring that Africa can build and realize its full potential and prosperity for all Africans.”

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the EU remained fully committed to providing long-term support to the transitional federal institutions of Somalia.

Rob Harford, operations director at Salamanca Risk Management, said even African peacekeepers, whom al Shabaab portray as foreign invaders, risk becoming part of the problem:

“Whether more African Union troops will lead to greater stability is the million-dollar question. Somalia is a particularly unstable and complex insurgency. Unless the soldiers are properly trained, their arrival will almost certainly lead to greater instability.”

More than 21,000 Somalis have been killed in the insurgency, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes and nearly half a million are sheltering in other countries in the region.

Hotel attack kills at least 31 in Somalia, Islamist group al Shabaab claiming responsibility

At least 31 people including six government officials were killed on Tuesday in the Mogadishu hotel attack by gunmen, the Somali government said.

The Somali government said in a statement that at least 31 people including six members of parliament had been killed in the hotel attack.

It said the six members of parliament were inside the hotel when the attack occurred.

The attack also killed several government security personnel, it added.

The raid came as the heavy fighting between the Islamist fighters from Al Shabaab and the government forces enters its second day in the past two days left about almost 50 people dead and more than 150 others wounded.

The Islamist group on Tuesday afternoon claimed responsibility for the hotel raid.

Spokesman for al Shabaab told the media that his Mujajideen forces carried out an operation at Hotel Muna.








Islamist group Al Shabaab on Monday called on its fighters to wage "an all-out war" against Somali government forces and AU peacekeeping troops, saying that everyone should contribute in every possible way.

They have accuse the AU troops of invading Somalia and vowed to continue the fight against the peacekeepers until they withdraw from the war torn country.

Somalia had not had an effective central government since 1991.

The African Union (AU) envoy to Somalia has condemned Tuesday's suicide attack in the Mogadishu hotel.

"It's sad to learn that Armed Opposition Groups do not see the wisdom of giving peace a chance in their country," said Ambassador Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission for Somalia. "Today's attack on innocent civilians clearly demonstrates the cowardly and barbaric mindset of those opposed to the peace process and cannot be condoned," Diarra said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The AU envoy said it was unfortunate that those opposed to the peace process continue to kill innocent civilians even during the fasting month of Ramadan which is one of the key pillars of the Islamic faith which they claim to profess. "I, on behalf of the African Union, would like to call upon all warring parties in the Somali Conflict to stop such barbaric attacks on innocent civilian population," Diarra said.

Diarra reiterated the AU's resolve to helping the people of Somalia find a lasting solution to the conflict and called on all warring parties to join the peace process.


People gather around Muna Hotel, the site of an armed attack in Mogadishu August 24, 2010. Gunmen in army uniforms stormed a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu frequented by government officials on Tuesday. The Information Ministry said at least 31 people had died, including six members of parliament and five members of government security forces

Mogadishu blasts kill 34, injure almost 70: medics-Blasts at Somali mosque kill at least 30: witnesses

Somalia's transitional government condemned the blasts

Causality figures in the Mogadishu mosque explosions on Saturday include 34 dead and almost 70 wounded, hospital sources said.

Local hospitals and emgercy services say that the death toll now stands at 34 while almost 70 others have been admitted to the Daynile Hospital on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.

Witnesses at the scene of the blast speak of carnage and confusion, with dozens of dead and wounded people lying on the floor of the mosque following the twin explosions in the packed mosque in the main Bakara market in Mogadishu

An Islamist official of the Al Shabaab Islamist groups was among the injured in the attack on a mosque frequented by supporters of Islamist Al Shabaab movement.

The group's senior leader Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, who was at the mosque at the time and "slightly" injured in the arms, was the target of the attack, according to Al Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamoud Rageh.

Rageh accused foreign security firms operating inside Mogadishu of being behind the attack.

The Al Shabaab spokesman vowed to tighten security and be more alert to any future attacks from what he called the foreign security firms' "local collaborators."



Al Shabaab is linked to al Qaeda and Khalaf is one of the officials under UN sanctions. He has recently been added to Islamist Somali leaders under U. S. sanctions.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first of its kind in a place of worship in Somalia.

The group is waging a deadly insurgency attack on the Somali government and African Union peacekeepers backing the Somali government forces.

The moderate Islamist militias, the Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaca, recently struck a power-sharing deal with the government. This week it vowed to start fighting Al Shabaab inside their strongholds in Mogadishu.

Ahlu Sunnah has been fighting al Shabaab group in the central Somali regions where they control several important districts.

Al Shabaab, seen as a terrorist group, controls much of the southern and central parts of Somalia. It has been fighting to topple the internationally recognized Somali government and establish an Islamic state in the war-torn east African country.

Somalia has been without a central government for the past two decades.

Two explosions at a mosque in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed at least 30 people on Saturday and wounded scores, witnesses said.


It was the second attack this week on a mosque in Bakara Market, an area of Mogadishu dominated by members of the country's two main insurgent groups, Hizbul Islam and al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab.

Saturday's attack was in the Abdalla Shideye mosque which is often used by al Shabaab officials to deliver speeches. It is not far from the Abu Hureya mosque where a land mine killed one person Tuesday.

"Many screaming people were piled up on each other, some dead, some injured," said a witness who asked not to be identified. "There were more than 30 dead," he said, estimating that over 100 people were injured. "Al Shabaab armed men arrived and surrounded the mosque," he added.

It was not clear who was behind the mosque blasts, although residents suspected they could be the result of infighting between the insurgent groups, which are both trying to topple the Western-backed government.

Some witnesses said they believed that a senior leader of al Shabaab, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, was the target. Khalaf, who is also known as Fuad Shongole, is on a list of people in Somalia subject to U.N. sanctions.

According to the U.N. Security Council, Khalaf, who also has Swedish nationality, has raised funds for al Shabaab and was involved in two car bomb attacks in the capital in April 2008.

Skeletal and terrified: British yacht couple reveal cruelty of their Somali pirate captors

Her face is gaunt and drawn, her frame skeletal and weak.

The shocking effects of captivity are all too clear in this picture of Rachel Chandler, who has been held by Somali pirates for the last three months.

The image was taken by a French news agency that was allowed to accompany a doctor who examined Mrs Chandler and her husband Paul, who are being held separately.

The strain on 56-year-old Mrs Chandler’s face is clearly visible as she sits with her dress hanging loosely from her thin shoulders.

Yesterday she renewed her plea for urgent help, saying: ‘We have not much time left and are being badly treated. Please help us – these people are not treating us well.’

She went on: ‘I’m old, I’m 56, and my husband is 60 years old. We need to be together because we have not much time left. These people are treating us so cruelly.’

This is only the second time Mrs Chandler, an economist, has been seen since she and her husband were kidnapped in October at gunpoint as they sailed in their yacht towards Tanzania.

The last time was in November, when a video taken by the kidnappers – who are demanding a £1.9million ransom – was shown on Channel 4.
They have made other pleas for help in desperate phone calls, most recently on January 21, but the physical deterioration in yesterday’s new images are clear.

The Somalian doctor who examined Mrs Chandler said she was suffering a heavy ‘mental’ toll as well, which was manifested in ‘insomnia’.

Surgeon Mohamed Helmi Hangul, who spent three weeks securing permission to visit the couple, said: 'She's very confused, she's always asking about her husband - "Where's my husband, where's my husband?" - and she seems completely disorientated.'

'If I was with my husband I would feel a lot better,' Mrs Chandler told the medic.

'It's because I am not with my husband that I am feeling so lonely and desperate and finding it difficult to sleep.

'I need to be with Paul. We are husband and wife. We have always been together and we look after one another.'Mr Chandler also appeared gaunt in the video taken last Thursday but released last night.

His ribs could be seen as he lifted his shirt to be checked by the doctor, who reported he had a cough and a fever.

In the video, filmed by the AFP photographer, Mr Chandler, a retired quantity surveyor, called on the British Government to intervene.

'I just want to say please to my government, get me and my wife out of here. We are innocent we have done nothing wrong.
We have no money and can’t pay a ransom. We just need the Government to help, anyone who can get us out of here.

‘Day after day and this is 98 days of solitary confinement, no exercise. I don’t know what to do.’

Mr Chandler finally pleaded: ‘Will somebody please help? The government or somebody else.’
Dr Hangul added he had not been allowed to bring any drugs with him but left a prescription-with the pirates.

‘I gave them some advice and told them, “Your hostages can die. All you want is money so treat them well, let them reunite”,’ he said.

Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, was too distressed to comment last night.

A family friend said: ‘This is a highly distressing time for the family. They know the stakes are high and they are in an impossible position.

'The pirates want an unaffordable ransom and the Government won’t pay it.’

There has been sporadic communication with the Chandlers since they were captured, although this was the first time a journalist had been able to meet them.
Eleven days ago Mr Chandler spoke to ITV news, explaining their captives had ‘set a deadline of three or four days’, after which they expected to them to ‘kill us and abandon us in the desert’.

In a separate call, Mrs Chandler said she had been hit with an object she believed was a gun.

A gang member told the Daily Mail last month that the couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, would be shot by the end of February if they were not paid a $3million ransom.

The Chandlers are being held in rugged areas between the coastal village of Elhur and the small inland town of Amara but are moved every 48 hours.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has already insisted the Government will not become involved in any ransom payments.

A Foreign Office spokesman last night said: ‘We are doing everything we can to help secure their release.

'We remain in regular contact with the family and are providing support. We call for the safe and swift release of Paul and Rachel.'


How events unfolded after the Chandlers were captured aboard their yacht

One of the Somali pirate crews that operate off the country's coast and regularly attack shipping. This particular group seized 29 ships in 2008 and earned £6million in ransom money

Mr Chandler is examined by the doctor who visited with the video journalist: He and his wife are being held in separate locations in rugged countryside between the coastal village of Elhur and the small town of Amara

Mr Chandler, 60, pleaded for help and said conditions they were being held in were 'difficult'

Mrs Chandler being examined by the Somali doctor Abdi Mohamed Helmi.Disorientated: Rachel Chandler looked frail and weak in the video footage. She and her husband have been held for three months

With guns pointed at their backs, Paul and Rachel Chandler are forced to beg for mercy in a video released by their Somali kidnappers three months ago

The Chandlers looking healthy in Kerala, India - the couple were on a round-the-world trip when captured by pirates

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Somali pirates hijack two ships off East African coast-Somali pirates seize two more vessels

The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates

Somali pirates have captured two ships with 45 crew off the East African coast, officials say.

A UK-flagged chemical tanker, the St James Park, was reportedly captured in the Gulf of Aden on Monday while on its way to Thailand from Spain.

Its 26 crew hail from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Georgia, India, Turkey and the Philippines.

The Navios Apollon, a Panamanian-flagged Greek cargo ship with 19 crew, was hijacked north of the Seychelles.

The 50,000-tonne carrier - which had been sailing from the US state of Florida to India - was boarded on Monday by 10 men in speedboats, according to the Greek coastguard.

Pirate attacks have been common off the Somali coast and international navies have been deployed to counter them.

'No contact'

The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates, said the International Maritime Bureau

The tanker, which was carrying a cargo of chemicals used to make plastics, had changed course and was now heading towards the northern coast of Somalia, said Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.

"It is expected to arrive there later this evening," Mr Mwangura told AFP news agency.

The ship's owner-operators told the BBC they were working for "the early and safe release of our crew members on board".

A spokesman for Zodiac Maritime Agencies said the company had had no contact with the St James Park or the pirates but was in contact with the European naval force in the area.

The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world.

Correspondents say the upsurge in piracy in the region is a consequence of the failure to find a solution to Somalia's continuing political disarray.

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Somali suicide bomber detonate bom inside doc graduation ceremony.Murder 23 people.

Most of the dead were reported to have been students


Al-Shabab is accused by some of being a proxy for al-Qaeda in East Africa


A bomber dressed as a woman carried out the attack at a medical student graduation ceremony in Mogadishu


Hundreds of people were gathered inside the Shamo hotel in the capital when the bomb went off


The international community condemned the attack, which dealt a huge blow to Somalia's feeble transitional government





Somalia's hardline Islamist insurgents denied Friday that they carried out a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu that killed at least 23 people, including three government ministers.

A bomber dressed as a woman carried out the attack at a medical student graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, which also killed three journalists and left dozens of people injured.

The international community condemned the attack, which dealt an unprecedented blow to Somalia's feeble transitional government, and President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed blamed it on the Islamist insurgency.

But the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement and its Hezb al-Islam allies, who have waged a relentless guerrilla war against the government since May, denied any involvement in the bombing.

"We have heard about that tragedy from the media. On behalf of the Shebab, we are not in anyway involved in that incident," top spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement.

Hezb al-Islam leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys condemned the attack, charging the suicide bomber must have been a foreigner.

"I condemn this attack, which is the work of the enemy, and I send my condolences to the family members of those who were killed," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

"This was the work of enemies who want to destroy Somalia's intelligentsia and create a hostile atmosphere in which Somalis cannot reconcile," Aweys added.

Although not the deadliest attack in Mogadishu, the suicide bombing sent shockwaves across the civilian population, the government and the international community.

Hundreds of people were gathered inside the Shamo hotel for a rare celebration in a country which has experienced 18 years of almost uninterrupted civil chaos.

The blast ripped through the crowd, killing the ministers of education, higher education and health.

A medic at Mogadishu's Medina hospital said that, in addition to the dead counted on Thursday, three wounded had since died of their injuries and one more civilian victim was found, raising the death toll to 23.

Three journalists were also among the victims, bringing to nine the number of reporters killed in the restive Horn of Africa country this year alone. An AFP photographer sustained slight injuries.

"We were waiting outside the conference room when there was a huge explosion. I found myself on the ground in the middle of the smoke and screaming," the photographer said.

"I went to get my camera, and that's when I saw the bodies of the three ministers."

Shebab and Hezb al-Islam have so far focused their armed effort on attacking government troops and African Union peacekeepers, who they accuse of spearheading a Western-backed Christian crusade in Somalia.

In his reaction to the bombing, the Shebab spokesman insinuated that the attack was the result of quarrels within the transitional government, caused notably by the reported imminent sacking of senior security officials.

A joint statement from the European Union, the InterGovernmental Authority on Development, a regional body, the League of Arab States, the United Nations and the United States condemned the attack as "cowardly acts of terrorism".

"The horrific attack is another demonstration of the extremists' complete disregard for human life. The fact this bombing targeted graduating medical students - the future doctors of Somalia - is particularly egregious," the statement said.

Thursday's explosion went off in a crowded meeting room at the hotel, where hundreds of people had gathered for a graduation ceremony of medical students.

Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said the male bomber had been dressed in women's clothing, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes".

Officials said Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel and Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow were all killed.

Sports Minister Saleban Olad Roble was critically wounded and remains in hospital.

At least three journalists were also among the dead but most of those killed were reported to have been students. More than 60 people were injured.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan, who was at the scene, said it had been a "shocking, terrible scene".

Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has described the attack as a "national disaster".

He described the victims as "dear citizens... unjustly assassinated while carrying out their duty to the nation".

The hotel is often used by the few foreigners - aid workers, journalists and diplomats - who still visit Mogadishu.

Somalia has had no effective government for almost 20 years.

The blast happened in one of the small parts of the city controlled by the weak UN-backed government, just 1km (0.62 miles) from the K4 junction, where the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, Amisom, has a base.

Amisom's acting head, Wafula Wamunyini, said the blast was "intended to intimidate and blackmail" government.

But in a statement, the AU said it would "not deter the resolve and determination of the African Union to support the people of Somalia in their quest for peace and reconciliation".

The students had been graduating from Benadir University, which was set up in 2002 to train doctors to replace those who had fled overseas or been killed in the civil war.
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British yacht couple captured by Somali gunmen make desperate plea.Rachel Chandler Paul Chandler captured by somali pirates to be killed within days

Captured: The moment the Lynn Rival was boarded by pirates off east Africa

Video: Rachel and her husband Paul, who were kidnapped by Somali pirates last month, begged for their lives as they warned they could be killed within days

Plea: Mr Chandler appeared healthier than his wife but was clearly showing signs of exhaustion from the ordeal

Terror: Rachel Chandler trembles as pirates menace her with a machine gun and grenade launcher

With an assault rifle pointed at her head, this was the dramatic moment the British woman kidnapped by Somali pirates pleaded for her life last night.

Surrounded by their captors, Rachel Chandler warned that she and her husband Paul could be killed within days.

She said the kidnappers were ‘losing patience’ and urged the British Government to open talks on a ransom.

Mrs Chandler said: ‘We are feeling very much under threat now. These people won’t hesitate to take our lives.’

Wearing a white robe and appearing frail, she went on: ‘Our captors are getting very impatient that no one has been in touch or entered into negotiations.

‘So we ask the Government and people of Britain and their families to do whatever they can to enter into negotiations to buy back our lives. We are under threat and we are told that we will not be fed and given water. So we are very concerned about the future.’

The 55-year-old added: 'We are also told that there is a terrorist cell, or a fanatic cell, searching for us.’

The couple were seized 29 days ago as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania on their 38ft yacht.

Their appeal for help came in a video shot by the kidnappers in the African bush on Wednesday and released to Channel 4 News last night.

Mr Chandler, 59, who was showing signs of exhaustion, said: ‘So far we have been provided with adequate food, water and facilities, and are unharmed and in reasonable physical health. But mentally we are under great stress and threatened.

‘Our kidnappers are losing patience. We have been threatened that there is a terrorist group at large in this country looking for us.

‘We are concerned these people will lose patience and I have no doubt they will not hesitate to kill us in a week or so.

‘So please, somebody get in touch otherwise we are just sleepwalk to a tragic end.’

Channel 4 said it had broadcast the video with the consent of the Chandlers’ family.

Last night a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are aware of the video. Any such video will be distressing for the family.’

He said that the couple were innocent tourists and the Government sought their immediate release, but that ‘substantive concessions’ would not be made to hostage takers.

The video was released as questions mounted over why a Royal Navy vessel armed with cannon and machine guns just 50ft away as the couple were kidnapped did not immediately intervene to save them and why the Ministry of Defence seemingly covered up the episode.

The kidnappers had previously demanded a £4million ransom for the couple and said they would ‘burn their bones’ if there was any attempt to free them.

The Chandlers, who have no children, were heading for Tanzania, via the Amirante Islands on their yacht the Lynn Rival.

The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were taken hostage by gunmen in the Indian Ocean early on October 23. Pirates boarded their yacht as they slept and diverted them to Somalia.

Six days later in a phone call to ITV, Mr Chandler said: ‘I was asleep and men with guns came on board.’

He told how they had been moved to a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been seized by the pirates, and then moved to another ship anchored off the east coast of Somalia.

The following day the ransom demand was made in a phone call to the BBC. In the call one of the pirates said: ‘If they do not harm us, we will not harm them - we only need a little amount of seven million dollars.’

The same day Mrs Chandler’s brother Stephen Collett made a direct plea to the pirates, saying: ‘If you release them it would show your compassionate nature and it would be positive to everyone. Thank you.’

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Somali pirates say British couple taken to land-Somali pirates: Western boats 'loot' Somali fish

n this undated photo made available by the family, shows Paul Chandler, who went missing with his wife Rachel when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday Oct. 29, 2009 found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.



In this undated photo made available by the family, Paul and Rachel Chandler, who went missing when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, are seen at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.


In this undated photo made available by the family, shows Paul Chandler, who went missing with his wife Rachel when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday Oct. 29, 2009 found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.


In this undated photo made available by the family, shows Paul Chandler, who went missing with his wife Rachel when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, at an unknown location. The British navy on Thursday Oct. 29, 2009 found an empty yacht in international waters belonging to the missing British couple and a defense official said Somali pirates may have transferred them to another vessel. International naval forces have been searching for the couple for days. Paul and Rachel Chandler were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent last Friday.




Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are "looting" Somalia's fish-rich waters.

Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, says Western fishing vessels "harass" local fishermen and destroy their nets. Gadaf spoke to The Associated Press by satellite phone.

Gadaf says the British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed.

Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The country's prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech last week that many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters and have pushed formerly profitable Somali fishermen into the pirate trade.

Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters, a pirate spokesman said Saturday.

Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, said the group holding the couple hostage off Somalia's coast was made up of "voluntary guards" — not pirates.

"The Western forces continue to loot our natural resources. They continue to harass local fishermen and destroy their fishing nets, so we want them to taste the consequence," Gadaf said by satellite phone from the coastal town of Haradhere.

The British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed, Gadaf said. They will be released once the ransom is paid, he said.

The Chandlers were headed to Tanzania in their boat, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent Oct. 23. The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday, and both have been in sporadic contact with the British media since.

Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The prime minister of Somalia's transitional government, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech Wednesday that many pirates are former fishermen "responding to the loss and disappearance of their livelihoods."

"Many of these pirates were once profitable fisherman and would be so again given the chance," he said at the London-based Chatham House think tank.

"I shall not name names, but suffice to say many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters," he said. "We estimate that the value of the fish being taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It is wholly unacceptable for these countries, many of whom claim they want to help Somalia, to turn a blind eye to this theft. Particularly when that theft robs thousands of Somali people of a way out of poverty and a way out of piracy," Sharmarke said.

Rachel Chandler told her brother in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News on Friday that the pirates were "hospitable people," a message that Sharmarke underscored in his London remarks.

British officials held a meeting on the hostage situation Friday in the government's crisis briefing room. The Foreign Office said a team from across several government departments was involved. Both the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense declined to comment on whether any potential rescue was under consideration.

Pirate attacks have increased the last several weeks after the recent end of the monsoon season. An international armada is patrolling the region to try to stop the attacks.

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