$3 million has been paid

13:58 GMT, January 9, 2009 Somali Pirates who have been seizing a Saudi Super Tanker said they have released on Friday the ship and all its crew members those were in good health, reports say.

The tanker is in the fleet of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Vela International Ltd. and was carrying 2 million barrels of crude. It was hijacked Nov. 15 about 420 nautical miles (780 kilometers) off Somalia and was carrying 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia and Saudi Arabia (see: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/3816/).

The chief of the Somali pirates Mohamed Said told AFP through the wire “All our people have now left the Sirius Star, the ship is free, the crew is free,' and it has left from Harardhere coast”

According to reports, a $3 million has been paid to the Somali pirates who captured the tanker on November 15.

The tanker has 25 crew onboard including two Britons - Peter French and James Grady.

The East African Seafarers Assistance Program Andrew Mwanguara said “It is moving south-east. She might have been released. It is too early to confirm. But often when a deal has been released, the hijackers accompany the ship away from the coast like this.”.

Almost 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year on their way to and from the Suez Canal and there have been at least 96 pirate attacks in the last year in Somali waters, with 40 ships hijacked.

The ship and its crew have been held near the Somali coast during reported negotiations over a ransom payment. There were more than 100 pirate attacks reported off Somalia's coast last year.

The Somali piracy phenomenon in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes has sent shipping insurance prices soaring, made some owners choose to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and brought an unprecedented deployment of international warships to the region.

More than a dozen warships from countries as diverse as Britain, the US, India, Iran, China, Malaysia, Turkey, Russia, France and Germany now have naval forces patrolling the vast gulf.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. Piracy was almost wiped out during a previous Islamic administration in 2006.

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Jamal Osman
Special Correspondent for Somalia