US Marines rescued on Thursday a German-owned ship seized by pirates a day earlier, as part of multinational operations to stem piracy in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, the US Fifth Fleet said.
The Somali pirates who recently captured a Hamburg freight ship are being extradited to Germany for what is expected to be the first trial of such pirates from the collapsed African nation on German soil.
The Dutch navy has freed a German cargo ship hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia and arrested 10 of the attackers, the Dutch defence ministry announced late on Monday.
The German military shot dead a suspected pirate off the coast of Somalia on Monday after a boat carrying five men failed to heed warning shots, the German military said.
The captain of the Hansa Stavenger, which was captured by Somali pirates and held for four months, may sue the shipping company for not trying hard enough to release the ship and its crew, according to a report in <i>Focus</i> magazine.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung intends to change the constitution to allow the army to deal with hostage situations, after the German ship held by Somalian pirates since April docked in Mombasa, Kenya.
Somali pirates freed a Malaysian tugboat and a German container ship with a total of 35 seamen after the hijackers were paid ransoms, maritime officials said Monday.
Following apparent difficulties in release negotiations, Somali pirates took three German hostages from the hijacked cargo ship Hansa Stavanger to the mainland on Sunday, reports said.
Somali hijackers said on Saturday they had released the German ship Victoria and its crew which they had been holding for three months after being paid a ransom of $1.8 million.
As negotiations continue for the release of the <i>Hansa Stavanger</i>, a German freighter captured by pirates more than three months ago, more German marine shipping companies are feeling the financial strain of the pirate threat in waters off the coast of Africa.
Somali pirates have released a German-owned cargo ship which was hijacked last month with a crew that reportedly included a Polish captain and 15 Filipino sailors, Poland's foreign ministry said late on Tuesday.
Jurgen Kantner, kidnapped from his sailboat by Somalia pirates last year, has baffled locals by returning to the scene of the crime to retrieve his beloved sailboat.
A battle has erupted in Germany’s governing coalition over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s suggestion to amend the constitution in order to aid the navy’s mission against piracy on the high seas.
The German government has been criticised for reportedly allowing bureaucratic delays to stop the country’s elite GSG-9 police commandos from storming a pirate-held ship last week.
The German government pulled back the elite combat force GSG 9 from storming the pirate-held ship Hansa Stavanger at the last minute, it was reported at the weekend.
Pirates attacked a German-owned cargo ship flying under a Maltese flag and captured its 17-strong crew overnight in the Gulf of Aden, officials said Saturday.
A Hamburg container ship saved 75 people from a sinking passenger ship off the coast of Tanzania on Thursday evening, a spokesman from the Komrowski shipping company said.
Seven Somalis accused of firing on a German ship off the coast of Yemen have been handed over to authorities in Kenya where they will be judged, Berlin said on Wednesday.
Pirates have hijacked another German cargo ship off the coast of Somalia, spokesmen for the German Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday, adding that they had appointed a crisis team.
The German government has filed charges against seven alleged Somali pirates who attacked a German ship this week, according to the country’s defence ministry on Tuesday.
For the second time since the anti-pirate mission Atalanta began in December, German military forces have detained several Somali pirates, the military said on Monday.
