Somali regional police threaten to use force to free hijacked tanker
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BOSASSO -- Maritime police in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland said on Thursday they would attack hijackers holding an oil tanker to free the vessel if efforts by local elders to get them to surrender did not work.
Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, director general of Puntland's maritime police, said they had surrounded the ship, which is docked near the port town of Alula, but had been asked by local elders to give them a chance to convince the hijackers to free the vessel.
"If they do not get off, we shall fight to rescue the ship," Hassan told Reuters.
