The four pirates were killed in an armed contact with the Indonesian military personnel in freeing Sinar Kudus, Military (TNI) Chief Admiral Agus Suhartono said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian military (TNI) said four Somali pirates had been killed in operations of saving the 20 MV Sinar Kudus crew members held hostage.
The four pirates were killed in an armed contact with the Indonesian military personnel in freeing Sinar Kudus, Military (TNI) Chief Admiral Agus Suhartono said here Monday.
He said that "we failed to get their bodies, which may have fallen into the sea."
Agus said that there were 82 pirates on the cargo ship when the process of freeing the hostages was in progress.
The pirates, Agus said, were leaving the ship one by one, and when the last four got their turn to leave, the TNI personnel opened their attack, killing the four.
From the attack, the TNI soldier Agus said managed to get only one of pirates` boats, and it was planned to bring them to Indonesia.
The admiral said Indonesia had planned to resort to military force after all the hostages had been saved.
"Our main task was to save the hostages," he said, adding that the TNI`s attempt of resorting to military force had its difficulties and had been very risky.
Very risky because the position of the hostages is in different places. "Besides, Sinar Kudus was between eight other ships, and clear access to it was difficult, " Agus said.
The many pirates on board the ship had also made it difficult for the TNI military personnel to launch an attack. "There were about 15-20 organized groups with each group consisting of 30-50 members," Agus said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
