Markus Junianto Sihaloho – After paying the ransom and freeing the crew of 20 Indonesian sailors aboard the Sinar Kudus cargo ship late on Sunday, the Indonesian military announced today that it had also killed four of the Somali pirates who had taken the sailors hostage.

"After we secured all the hostages, we chased after the pirates and killed four of them," said Rear Admiral Iskandar Sitompul, a military spokesman. He explained that, after the ransom was paid, the pirates left the Sinar Kudus ship in small groups and the last batch leaving the ship was four pirates.

"At that point, all the hostages had already been secured. So one of our units, consisting of 12 personnel and a helicopter, chased the last pirate group. Gunfire occurred and our personnel killed all the pirates in the boat," Iskandar said.

The personnel responsible for the kills are members of a joint military operations force specializing in hostage extraction. Iskandar said they were made up of members of the navy's Jalamengkara detachment, the army's special forces unit and the army's strategic command group.

He said the all hostages are now safe and at a nearby harbor from which they would be transported by plane back to Indonesia.

Three Indonesian warships are guarding the hostages, Iskandar said. "So trust me, they are safe. The pirates won't have guts to disturb them."

The Indonesian sailors aboard the cargo ship Sinar Kudus had been held captive by the Somali pirates for 46 days. Reuters quoted a pirate as saying they received $4.5 million in cash but David Batubara, vice president of ship owner Samudera Indonesia, said the amount was not accurate but declined to reveal how much the company paid.

Iskandar said military personnel had actually been on the water monitoring the pirates' activity for over a month, waiting for the government's final order.