Pirates kidnap 4 foreigners,kill two Naval Officers off-shore

Pirates attacked two ships off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta early yesterday(Saturday), killing two navy sailors protecting the vessels and kidnapping four foreign workers before fleeing into the darkness, officials said.
The attack happened about 35 nautical miles off the coast of the Niger Delta, a region once beset by militant and criminal attacks and kidnappings that has seen relative calm since a government-sponsored amnesty deal a few years ago. 
The gunmen opened fire on the sailors, wounding two others in the attack, said Commodore Kabir Aliyu, a spokesman for Nigeria's navy.
Those abducted by the gunmen included an Indonesian, an Iranian, a Malaysian and a worker from Thailand, Aliyu said. 
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, nor did anyone issue a ransom demand, the commodore said.
The ships belonged to Sea Trucks Group, an oil and gas contractor with offices in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. 
Company spokeswoman Corrie van Kessel told Associated Press yesterday that the two wounded sailors were receiving treatment at a hospital in Port Harcourt.
"Sea Trucks are making every effort to ascertain the whereabouts of the kidnapped personnel," van Kessel said. She declined to identify the nationalities of those kidnapped, nor the company Sea Trucks was working for in the delta. Sea Trucks previously did work for U.S.-based Chevron Corp., though a Chevron spokesman said none of its employees or contractors were involved in Saturday's attack.
Nigeria's navy sent a helicopter and another ship into the area to help the attacked ships and search for the people who carried out the attack, Aliyu said.
Foreign oil companies have pumped oil out of the delta for more than 50 years. Despite the billions of dollars flowing into Nigeria's government, many in the delta remain desperately poor, living in polluted waters without access to proper medical care, education or work. That sparked an uprising by militants and opportunistic criminals in 2006 who blew up oil pipelines and kidnapped foreign workers.
That violence ebbed in 2009 with a government-sponsored amnesty program promising ex-fighters monthly payments and job training. However, few in the delta have seen the promised benefits and scattered kidnappings and attacks continue. The last major kidnapping happened in November, when gunmen attacked a ship supplying a Chevron Corp. offshore oil field, kidnapping three workers. The three later were released in December.
While kidnappings in the delta routinely involve violence, most hostages are released a few weeks later unharmed after their employers pay a ransom.