Egypt: 34 fishermen freed months after Somalia hijacking.Somali pirates find 7 bodies, blame Egyptians

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Thirty-four fishermen are free four months after the two Egyptian vessels they were on were hijacked off the coast of Somalia, an Egyptian official said Friday.
The fishermen were released after Egyptian and Yemeni government officials intervened, according to a statement from Egypt's undersecretary for consular affairs, Ahmad Rizk. He offered no further details.
Rizk said no ransom was paid for the 34 men, who will arrive in Yemen later in the day and then be transported to Egypt. Rizk did not address media reports that said the fishermen escaped Thursday after physically overpowering their captors, killing two of them.
A pirate source in the Somali port city of Bosasso told CNN that an Egyptian mediator somehow gave the pirates a beverage that rendered them semi-conscious, allowing the captive fishermen to disarm them and launch the surprise attack..more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/08/14/egypt.somalia.pirates/index.html
Somali pirates find 7 bodies, blame Egyptians
BOSSASO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali pirates found seven dead colleagues floating in the ocean on Saturday and vowed to take revenge against Egyptian fishermen they say killed them during an escape, an associate of the pirates said. The 34 fishermen had been held hostage by the pirates since April, but they managed to overpower their guards on Thursday and fled in their two fishing vessels after a gun battle. Two of their captors were killed during that shoot-out, and the pirates said the Egyptians took several others with them. "We have found seven of our dead colleagues floating in the sea," said the associate, who gave his name as Farah, by telephone from one of the gangs' strongholds, Las Qoray. ..more..http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/15/AR2009081501981.html