His country has been independent from Somalia since 1991 but, like Puntland, is unrecognised.
Puntland is governed by a 66-member House of Representatives and a traditional council of elders.
Forces loyal to Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who claims the presidency of Puntland , captured Bossasso, the commercial capital.
On Sunday, their rescue effort triggered a gun battle that left two pirates and a Puntland soldier dead.
The BBC's reporter in Puntland, Ahmed Mohamed Ali, says it also explains the tight operation the pirates run.
Puntland declared independence in 1998 from Somalia, a country which has had no central government for a decade.
The Puntland official also condemned foreign countries for paying ransom to the pirates because it would only encourage more piracy.
Mr Yusuf's gunmen may return north to their more or less autonomous homeland in Puntland, perhaps to profit from piracy.
Col Yusuf reclaimed the leadership in 2002 and led Puntland until his election as Somalia's transitional president in October 2004.
The Wail was hijacked while it was heading from Oman to the Somali coastal town of Bosasso -- located in Puntland.
It was being sailed by the pirates towards the Somali Puntland coast, said Kenya-based non-governmental organisation Ecoterra International, which monitors piracy.
After all, Somaliland in the north has already broken away and Puntland, in the north-east, is tenuously connected to the rump of Somalia.
Wounded pirates are seldom seen and our reporter says he has never heard of residents along Puntland's coast finding a body washed ashore.
Puntland's administration claims it is powerless in the face of the growing power of the pirates, who are well-armed and employ a lot of people.
It was the Puntland forces' second attempt to free the ship.
Authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they are powerless to confront the pirates, who regularly hold ships for ransom at the port of Eyl.
Other regions, including Puntland, are likely to be identified as being at risk of famine in the coming weeks unless the supply of aid increases substantially.
Galmudug is another, smaller zone that has become a cohesive semi-independent fief, south of Puntland and north of the zone which the ASWJ more or less controls.
Under pressure from foreign forces supporting Somalia's government, and riven with disagreement over its relations with al-Qaeda, al-Shabab has been pushed out of Mogadishu into the semi-autonomous Puntland.
The Sirius Star is believed now to be anchored somewhere off the coast of Somalia, near the pirate port of Eyl in the northern Puntland region of the country.
ECONOMIST: The significance of the latest attacks by Somali pirates
Puntland -- which declared its independence from war-wracked Somalia a decade ago but is not internationally recognized -- wants the international community to do more to combat the problem, Aware said.
There were problems in the regions of Sool and eastern Sanaag, where some clan leaders are unenthusiastic about Somaliland and where Puntland, another part of Somalia that asserts its autonomy, lays claim to territory.
"The state of Puntland encourages such steps and calls on other governments whose nationals are being held to do the same thing the French have done, " Puntland presidential adviser Bille Mohamoud Qabowsade told AFP.
Their release was the result of a long process involving contact with the Somali government, the collaboration of the authorities in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, and the work of the Italian intelligence services, he said.
Mohamed Abdulrahman, director of the maritime force that led the mission, said Monday that the rescued hostages -- who hailed from Yemen, India, Pakistan, Ghana, Sudan and the Philippines -- were in good health at a military base in Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia.
CNN: Ship crew held for 1,000 days rescued off coast of Yemen
应用推荐