Somali pirates move hostage Britons
Somali pirates today moved a British couple they are holding hostage after Islamist insurgents neared their hideout.
Paul and Rachel Chandler were bundled into a car an taken into a forest, soon after al-Shabab fighters approached the pirate lair of Haradhere, a town on the Somali coast.
Ahmed Salad, a local businessman, said an advance team of militants entered Haradhere in two vehicles late yesterday.
Somali pirates and insurgents are two separate groups. If al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida, takes control of pirate strongholds, the pirates’ 300-plus foreign hostages could be in greater danger.
The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were seized from their yacht Lynn Rival in the Indian Ocean on October 23.
