The thirty hostages, most of them French, had been held on board the "Le Ponant" yacht since it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Friday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office flatly rejected that its forces killed anybody in the resue operation, but confirmed arresting six pirates after hostages were liberated.

"I can confirm that three bodies were found and collected. Eight others were wounded," said Dahir Abdul Kadir Ahmed, the governor of Mudug region in northeastern Somalia.

He said the raid occurred in Jariban village, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Garaad hamlet, where the French luxury yacht, Le Ponant, was held by pirates for a week.

"French helicopters attacked the area after the ship was freed," Ahmed added.

The semi-autonomous Puntland government confirmed three were killed and six captured in the operation in a fishing village near the shore of the Indian Ocean.

"We welcome the fact that the French forces raided these pirates after securing release of the hostages. They killed three pirates," said Ali Abdi Harale, the deputy minister for international relations for the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

"We have confirmed that six of them (pirates) were taken by the French," he told AFP from the port town of Bosasso.

An elder in Jariban village also confirmed the fatalities that occurred in Puntland, a relatively peaceful region that broke away from the rest of Somalia proper in 1995, three years after the country's government collapsed.

"The helicopters bombed the pirates as they were escaping. Three of them were killed and some of them were taken by the French," elder Mohamed Haji Wardere told AFP.

Several residents reported that the French choppers fired high explosive on the pirates.

In Paris, the French military said it had detained six pirates after they freed the 30 crew members of the ship.

President Sarkozy earlier announced that the hostages, including 22 French sailors, had been freed in an operation that took place "without incident."

A source close to negotiations said the owner of vessel paid some two million dollars (1.3 million euros) for the release of 30 crew members.

Somali officials confirmed ransom was paid. "We have been told that two-million-dollar-ransom was paid," said Harale.

Along with the French sailors, the crew of the 32-cabin three-masted vessel included six Filipinos, a Ukrainian and a Cameroonian.

Armed forces chief of staff General Jean-Louis Georgelin said that half of the hostage-takers were arrested about one hour after they had released the crew, and had returned on land.

Detained pirates were taken aboard a French navy ship where they were being held on Friday, said a statement from the French presidency.

"We were able to track the pirates which enabled a helicopter-borne action to intercept half of them," Georgelin told a news conference.

Owned by French charter company CMA-CGM, Le Ponant was en route to the Mediterranean from the Seychelles when pirates boarded the vessel last Friday.

The vessel used for luxury cruises later anchored off Puntland, a breakaway northern region of Somalia, with a French navy ship in attendance, while negotiations with the pirates took place.

"We call on the other nations to take steps like the French government took to eliminate pirates from the Somalia coastline," Harale told AFP.

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