Pirates 'fought over kidnap couple'

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A Somalian clan elder claimed the clashes took place over plans by one faction of the pirate gang to transfer the Chandlers to a militant Islamist group.

Mr Chandler, 59, and his wife, 55, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, are not believed to have been injured in the fighting.

Hussein Mohamed Kahiye, a clan leader in the central Somali village of Bahdo, said: "We did not want the pirates to use our territory to hold hostages or hand them over to another group."

He said his clan had taken up arms with a moderate Islamic group to prevent Mr and Mrs Chandler falling into the hands of extremists.

The couple were seized in the early hours of October 23 when armed men boarded their yacht as they sailed from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

They were forced to sail towards Somalia before being moved onto a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which was seized by the pirates last month. Their vessel the Lynn Rival was found empty in open waters.

The couple were thought to have been held on a ship anchored off the eastern coast of Somalia, but Mr Kahiye said they had now been moved to an onshore site.

Last week, the pirates issued a seven million-dollar (£4.2 million) ransom demand. Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told the Mail on Sunday the pirates had been persuaded that the couple were not rich and might release them for £100,000.

After seeing the ransom report, the Foreign Office said the Government would not make any "substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom".