An Iranian was among three suspected pirates wounded after foreign warships in the Indian Ocean attacked a boat off Somalia’s coastal town of Hobyo, Galmudug State Wednesday afternoon, witnesses said on Friday.
At least three suspected Somali pirates were also slain in the raid conducted by a helicopter of unknown origin, according to Bashir Abdi Guled, a fisherman in Hobyo, a town about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu.
“An Iranian citizen, who I think was fisherman, and two Somalis wounded in the raid were taken a medical facility in the town for treatment,” Guled told All Headline News by phone, adding that all Somalis killed or wounded in the raid were fishermen.
Guled noted that early Thursday morning, a helicopter and three skiffs mounted with heavy and light guns attacked the same place, this time tearing down the boat used by the suspected pirates. No casualties were reported.
It was not immediately clear which country conducted the two attacks.
Mohammed Ali Gurey, the minister of fisheries and sea resources for Gal-mudug state, a self-styled administration in parts of Mudug region in central Somalia, on Friday told reporters in the northern town of Galka’yo that they received information that at least 15 Iranians were among those who came under attack.
“One of Iranians injured in the attack and brought to a local hospital along with two Somalis” the minister said.
“All Iranian citizens in the coastal town have [been] involved in illegal fishing off Somalia coasts,” Gurey spelled out.
Gal-mudug’s minister of fisheries also accused NATO warships and naval forces of harming and killing Somali fishermen intentionally, calling for the international community to intervene.
The Iranian government has not released any comments about the attacks or their wounded fishermen.
MUKTAR HAJI
mrmuhagi@gmail.com
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