Somali Pirates Release Sailors

NAIROBI, Kenya — Eleven sailors from Asia and Iran held hostage by Somali pirates for three and a half years were freed on Saturday and are safe in Kenya, according to mediators who helped secure their freedom.

The sailors, who had been held in dire conditions, beaten and tortured, are seven men from Bangladesh, one Indian, one Iranian, and two from Sri Lanka.

Their boat, the Malaysian-flagged container ship MV Albedo, was captured in November 2010 but sank in rough seas last July off the Somali coast. The surviving crew had been held on shore by the pirates since then, United Nations officials said.