CAIRO - THIRTY-FOUR Egyptian fishermen who were held hostage by Somali pirates for four months were headed home on Sunday with eight of their former captors held captive in their boats' refrigerated holds.
'The fishermen are expected to dock in the port of Ataka by the Suez canal on Thursday along with eight of the Somali pirates,' the Red Sea director of the Egyptian fishermen's trade union Bakri Abul Hassan told AFP.
The fishermen, who made their escape last Thursday, overpowered their captors thanks to 'secret plan drawn up by the Egyptian authorities,' he added.
wner of one of the boats, Hassan Khalil, travelled to the breakaway Somali province of Puntland to engage the services of a Yemeni who used to run the office of Somali former president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who was given asylum in Yemen earlier this year after stepping down in December, it added.
When the clansmen attacked on Thursday, the fishermen were able to overpower their captors and detain eight of them in holds of the two boats.
The independent Al-Masri Al-Yom daily quoted one of the fishermen, Abdullah Mohammed Amin, as saying that the pirates had believed that they were about to receive the first half of a promised 800,000 dollar ransom payment.
Khalil had turned up with the money but in fact it was intended as payment for his armed escort to turn on the pirates, the paper said.
Two of the pirates were killed, it added.
Attacks by pirates rose sharply in the first half of this year despite the deployment of anti-piracy patrols by an array of navies from around the world. Shipping companies have expressed concern that attacks may increase again in the coming weeks as the monsoon eases.
'The fishermen are expected to dock in the port of Ataka by the Suez canal on Thursday along with eight of the Somali pirates,' the Red Sea director of the Egyptian fishermen's trade union Bakri Abul Hassan told AFP.
The fishermen, who made their escape last Thursday, overpowered their captors thanks to 'secret plan drawn up by the Egyptian authorities,' he added.
wner of one of the boats, Hassan Khalil, travelled to the breakaway Somali province of Puntland to engage the services of a Yemeni who used to run the office of Somali former president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who was given asylum in Yemen earlier this year after stepping down in December, it added.
When the clansmen attacked on Thursday, the fishermen were able to overpower their captors and detain eight of them in holds of the two boats.
The independent Al-Masri Al-Yom daily quoted one of the fishermen, Abdullah Mohammed Amin, as saying that the pirates had believed that they were about to receive the first half of a promised 800,000 dollar ransom payment.
Khalil had turned up with the money but in fact it was intended as payment for his armed escort to turn on the pirates, the paper said.
Two of the pirates were killed, it added.
Attacks by pirates rose sharply in the first half of this year despite the deployment of anti-piracy patrols by an array of navies from around the world. Shipping companies have expressed concern that attacks may increase again in the coming weeks as the monsoon eases.
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