ADDIS ABABA : Ethiopia announced on Friday that its troops will withdraw from Somalia by the end of 2008, ending an ill-fated two-year occupation but raising fears of a security vacuum in the war-ravaged country.
With unprepared African Union troops confined to some parts of Mogadishu and joint units not yet operational, a hasty pull-out would leave most of Somalia under the control of the Islamist group Shebab and its allies.
Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Wahide Belay said that the deadline for the pullout was announced in a letter sent on Tuesday …

Two British and one Irish security guard have been plucked from the sea by a military helicopter after jumping from a chemical tanker seized by pirates off Somalia.
Their decision to abandon the two dozen crew members still on board attracted some criticism, but their British employer insisted that the three former soldiers were heroes who had resisted a sustained attack by heavily-armed pirates with great courage and would have been killed if they had stayed any longer.

The owner of a Thai fishing trawler has said the Indian navy sank it off Somalia’s coast last week after wrongly assuming it was a pirate “mother ship”.
Wicharn Sirichaiekawat said the Indian frigate had attacked the Ekawat Nava 5 while it was being hijacked by pirates.
He said one of the crew had been found alive after six days in the Gulf of Aden, but that another 14 were missing.
The Indian navy has insisted the vessel fired in self-defence at a pirate ship which had been stacked with explosives.
Almost 40 …

The leader of a Somali pirate group holding a Saudi-owned supertanker carrying $100 million in oil has denied reports the group has moved the vessel away from the coast of the central Somali town of Haradhere, where it had been anchored for more than a week. Eyewitnesses said the pirates moved the ship after Islamist militants threatened to rescue the supertanker by force. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has this exclusive story from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
Speaking to VOA by satellite telephone aboard the hijacked supertanker, the pirate leader, …

Somali Islamist insurgents have begun searching for the pirates who hijacked a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker last Saturday, reports say.
A spokesman for the al-Shabab group, Abdelghafar Musa, said hijacking a Muslim-owned ship was a major crime and they would pursue those responsible.
The pirates are thought to be trying to obtain a multi-million dollar ransom.
The ship, the Sirius Star, is believed to be be anchored off the Somali port of Haradheere.
It has an international crew of 25 people and is carrying $100m (£67m) worth of crude oil.

The battle with pirates operating off the coast of Somalia grew yesterday when raiders seized two more ships but lost one of their own in an uneven firefight with the Indian Navy. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) described the situation yesterday as “out of control”.
The surge in hijackings came as Saudi Arabia confirmed that a ransom demand had been made for the freeing of the Sirius Star supertanker, seized at the weekend with her crew of 25 and a cargo of oil worth $100 million (£65 million).

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his concern at new acts of piracy off the Somali coast this week amid reports of a series of attacks or attempting hijackings in recent days in a region already notorious for the practice.
Mr. Ban “reiterates his condemnation of all acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, wherever they occur,” according to a statement from his spokesperson, which was issued just days after heavily armed pirates hijacked a Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Indian navy is also reported to have sunk a suspected pirate …

The Indian navy has said that one of its warships in the Gulf of Aden has destroyed a ship belonging to pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.
The INS Tabar opened fire on a pirate “mother ship” after it came under attack, a government statement said.
There has been a surge in piracy incidents off Somalia.
The Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker is currently anchored off the Somali coast after the vessel and its 25 crew were seized by pirates.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A major Norwegian shipping group on Tuesday ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after Somali pirates seized a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.
The U.S. and other naval forces decided against intervening in the seizure of the supertanker. The pirates captured an Iranian cargo ship Tuesday, the seventh vessel seized in 12 days.

In what may be their most brazen attack yet, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi supertanker stocked with oil Saturday, the US Navy said today.
The incident raises questions about the ability of international efforts to thoroughly monitor the dangerous waters off Somalia’s coast, where such attacks have increased by 75 percent this year. Saturday’s seizure is believed to be the biggest ship pirates have nabbed, and the hijacking occurred farther off the coast of Africa than pirates have roamed thus far. Now, “even the world’s largest vessels are vulnerable,” reports the