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Somali fighters opposed to the country's interim government have entered the port town of Haradheere in a search for the pirates who seized a Saudi Arabian-owned oil tanker, a local elder has said.
Pirates have demanded a $25 million ransom for the Sirius Star, which was carrying more than two million barrels of oil when it was captured and is believed to be anchored off the coast of Somalia.
The Haradheere elder told the Reuters news agency that the fighters wanted to know the whereabouts of the Sirius Star, which was captured on Saturday about 450 nautical miles off Kenya.
"The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship," he told the Reuters news agency.
Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an opposition spokesman, told the Reuters: "Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships."
The pirates are reported to be building up their defenses around the vessel as the world's largest oil tanker company and other maritime officials said a more aggressive military approach is needed to stop such attacks.
"I think that's the only solution," Martin Jensen, the acting chief executive officer of Oslo-based Frontline Ltd, said on Friday.
Some analysts have suggested that opposition fighters benefit from arms shipments and income gained through piracy.
The groups have denied the allegations and point to the decrease in maritime attacks during the Islamic Court Union's brief control of large parts of the country in 2006.
PHOTO CAPTION
A video grab from an undated television footage shows pirates walking on the beach in the town of Eyl in the north of Somalia.
