Hijacked Saudi tanker reaches Somalia

By Abdiqani Hassan

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a $100 million (66 million pounds) 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.