Soldiers of a regional government, with guns blazing, freed a cargo ship Tuesday that pirates had held off the Somali coast for five days, according to an official from the region. The ship and the 11 crew members _ nine Syrians and two Somalis _ were freed after a gunbattle in which one soldier was killed and three wounded, said Deputy Seaport Minister Abdiqadir Muse Geele. No hostages or pirates were hurt, Geele was quoted as saying by Associated Press. The 10 pirates who had held the ship since Thursday surrendered when they ran out of ammunition, said Geele, who is a deputy minister in the government of the northern Somalia semiautonomous region of Puntland.
