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Indonesian forces killed four Somali pirates in a gunfight after a ship and 20 Indonesian hostages held nearly two months were freed, the military said on Tuesday.
About 35 pirates left the MV Sinar Kudus in groups Sunday after they received a requested ransom, Rear Admiral Iskandar Sitompul said. A special joint military squad made sure no more pirates were still on the ship and then pursued the groups, catching up with and killing four pirates in an exchange of gunfire.
He refused to discuss the ransom, which media reported was between US$3 million and US$4.5 million (S$3.7 million to S$5.5 million).
The Sinar Kudus was seized in the Arabian Sea on March 16. Soon afterward, the pirates used the hijacked ship to attack another cargo ship nearby, but private security repelled them, the EU Naval Force said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government in two decades, and piracy has flourished off its coast. International confrontations with pirates have grown more violent, and countries have arrested and taken steps to prosecute suspects.
Two Somalis were sentenced on Tuesday in Spain to 439 years in jail each for the 2009 hijacking of a Spanish fishing boat in the Indian Ocean. The court also said Spanish government-linked bodies paid the ransom, but Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez quickly denied that government paid to secure the release of the ship named the Alakrana.
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