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Somali pirates threaten to revenge on France, U.S.
Somali pirate groups Tuesday vowed to kill American and French crews of ships hijacked by them after U.S. marines shot dead three of the four pirates holding a U.S. captain hostage, local media reports said.
The threat came after a three-day hostage drama of Captain Richard Phillips, who was abducted after his ship Maersk Alabama was briefly taken by Somali pirates, ended with the killing of three pirates and capture of the fourth by U.S. special forces.
"If they have started killing us, we have decided to take revenge and kill any American or French crew or passenger members of ships we capture fishing in our seas," Jaama Siyad, a pirate spokesman told local Shabelle radio in Mogadishu.
Siyad said pirate gangs were in agreement that if any group hijack a ship with either a crew or a passenger from France or the U.S. they would immediately "shot them in the head".
Two Somali pirates were killed and four others captured by French commandos in a rescue operation on a French yacht off Somalia. Four French passengers were rescued while another was killed in the shootout between the pirates and French troops.
The Somali government has welcomed the rescue operations of both French and American troops saying it was the right thing to do in such circumstances. The Somali government has always been opposed to the payment of ransoms to pirates saying it encourages more pirate activities in the Horn of Africa coast.
Somali pirates are holding several ships with a couple of hundred crew members but it is not clear if they include American or French nationals.
Somali pirates do not usually harm their captives in expectation of the hefty ransom payout often received following negotiations with foreign governments or ship owners.
Dozens of countries have their navy patrolling the pirate infested Somali waters and the Gulf of Aden to prevent hijackings of commercial ships plying the important waterway after the UN Security Council authorized member states to fight piracy and the armed robbery at seas off Somalia last year.
海盗头目扬言报复 今后美法人质将被撕票
设在肯尼亚东部港口城市蒙巴萨的“海员援助组织”14日说，一艘希腊油轮前一天晚上在亚丁湾海域被索马里海盗劫持。
“海员援助组织”负责人安德鲁·穆万古拉在接受新华社记者电话采访时说，这艘3.5万吨级的油轮属于希腊一家公司，悬挂的也是希腊旗帜，船上有22人，船员的具体国籍情况现在尚不清楚。
这是索马里海盗本月以来劫持的第七艘外国船只。本月早些时候被劫持的一艘法国游艇近日被法方武力解救。另一艘悬挂美国国旗的丹麦货船9日遭到袭击，但海盗劫船图谋被挫败，船长在被绑架多日后被美国特种部队成功营救。美、法两国在援救行动中打死多名海盗。海盗头目威胁说，作为报复，今后遭索马里海盗劫持的美国和法国人质将被撕票。
索马里自1991年以来持续战乱，沿海地区海盗活动猖獗，是世界上最危险的海域之一。据统计，去年索马里沿海发生了上百起海盗袭击事件，被劫外国船只超过40艘，被劫船员人数超过600人。
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发表于 2016-8-12 16:30:08