By Nour Geidi
MOGADISHU
Four pirates were killed and three injured on Thursday in Galkayo, capital of Somalia's north-central Mudug region, when they clashed over ransom paid for a German journalist they had kidnapped earlier, eyewitnesses have said.
Witnesses said the pirates – who had kidnapped German reporter Michael Scott Moore – had come to blows after disagreeing about their respective shares of the $1.6 million ransom payment.
The violence left four pirates, including the group's leader, dead, and three people – including a bystander – injured, the eyewitnesses added.
Moore, a German-American reporter, was kidnapped in Galkayo in June 2012 while researching a story about Somali pirates.
On Tuesday, the Somali government said the journalist had already left Somalia en route to Germany.
A Somali government spokesperson, however, declined to provide further information about the circumstances of his release.
According to reports in the local media, Moore was released in return for a $1.6-million ransom delivered by middlemen.
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