AN AMERICAN ship captain was freed unharmed last night as three of the pirates who held him for days in a lifeboat off the Somali coast were killed during a navy Seals operation personally ordered by US president Barack Obama.
Captain Richard Phillips was in "imminent danger" of being killed before US snipers shot three of the four pirates. The fourth pirate was in US custody last night.
"They were pointing the AK-47s at the captain," Vice-Admiral William Gortney, h
ead of the US naval central command, said in a Pentagon briefing. He added that Washington had rejected negotiations with the pirates. "The United States government policy is to not negotiate," he added.
Last night, Mr Obama said the captain had courage that was "a model for all Americans".
He said he was pleased that Captain Phillips was rescued, adding that the US needed help from other countries to deal with the threat of piracy and to hold pirates accountable. However, Somali pirates threatened revenge last night, raising fears of future bloodshed on the high seas.
Referring to last night's rescue and an incident last Friday, when the French navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia, a pirate identified as Hussein said: "The French and the Americans will regret starting this killing. We do not kill, but take only ransom. We shall do something to anyone we see as French or American from now."
Captain Phillips was rescued yesterday in what US government sources described as a "swift firefight" that killed Somali pirates who had been holding him in a drifting lifeboat off the coast of Africa.
A senior US intelligence official said last night that another pirate who had been involved in negotiations with the FBI to free Captain Phillips, but who was not on the lifeboat, was being held in custody.
Captain Phillips, 53, of Vermont, was said last night to be "resting comfortably" on a US warship following his ordeal.
He was first taken on board the USS Bainbridge and then flown to the San Diego-based USS Boxer for a medical, according to 5th Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Christensen.
A family spokeswoman said Mr Phillips and his wife, Andrea, spoke by phone shortly after he was freed.
"You can all imagine their joy and what a happy moment that was for them," she said. "They're all just so happy and relieved."
When Captain Phillips's crew heard the news aboard their ship in the port of Mombasa, they placed an American flag over the rail of the top of the Maersk Alabama and whistled and pumped their fists in the air. Crew fired a bright red flare into the sky from the ship.
They remained on board the ship because the FBI has declared it a crime scene that needs to be secured. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said prosecutors were looking at "evidence and other issues" to determine whether to bring a case in the United States.
Captain Phillips has been hailed as an all-American hero after offering himself as a hostage to save his crew and then jumping from the pirates' lifeboat and trying to swim to a US warship.
Captain Joseph Murphy, the father of second-in-command Shane Murphy, thanked Captain Phillips for his bravery.
"Our prayers have been answered on this Easter Sunday. I have made it clear throughout this terrible ordeal that my son and our family will forever be indebted to Captain Phillips for his bravery," he said.
"If not for his incredible personal sacrifice, this kidnapping and act of terror could have turned out much worse."
John Reinhart, chief executive officer of Maersk Line, which owns the Alabama, the container ship skippered by Captain Phillips, said the US government told the company of the rescue at about 1:30pm local time.
Thanking the navy, FBI and others for helping in the release, Mr Reinhart said: "We join Richard's family, his crew and his colleagues ashore in celebrating this wonderful news. We look forward to welcoming him home in the coming days."
Before the rescue, military helicopters yesterday dropped supplies to the lifeboat.
Three US warships had been shadowing the lifeboat, which had run out of fuel, as negotiators tried to reach a deal with Somali elders, who wield significant influence with the pirates and had sent a mediator to sea.
However, negotiations broke down after American authorities failed to guarantee the pirates, who had demanded a ransom of $2 million (£1.4 million), a safe passage home if they returned Captain Phillips.
By noon local time on Saturday, the Americans had cut off communications with the elders in the town of Gara'ad, he said.
The pirates had been putting the captain on the satellite phone once a day to prove to American negotiators he was safe. Navy spotters also sighted Captain Phillips yesterday morn-ing, according to Maersk Line.
Aweys Ali Said, chairman of the Somali region of Galkayo, said he feared Captain Phillips had been tied down by his captors because he jumped overboard on Thursday night.
The Alabama docked safely in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Saturday night. The American crew hailed Captain Phillips' courage for giving himself up so they could go free.
Military officials said the pirates fired on a US craft that approached them from the USS Bainbridge on Saturday. No-one was hurt and the craft withdrew without returning fire.
Captain Phillips was just one of more than 260 hostages being held by pirates, who have targeted vessels from oil tankers to luxury yachts in and around the Gulf of Aden. Pirates operating from Somalia are still estimated to be in control of about 17 vessels, six taken in the past week.
Somalia's fledgling government has asked for international help to tackle the pirates.
Pirates are friendly enough despite the death threats – just don't mention the 'P' wordYOUR best source is jailed. You track high-sea hijacks by text and e-mail. You get through to captors on a satellite phone but are then roundly abused. Reporting on Somali piracy can be surreal, writes Andrew Cawthorne.
While some in the world only woke up to the phenomenon with the first seizure of an American hostage, Somalia's modern-day buccaneers have been marauding off the Horn of Africa for years, taking hundreds of captives and millions in ransoms.
Covering their exploits is a near-daily task for reporters in Somalia and foreign correspondents in East Africa.
At times, like the saga of just-released American hostage Richard Phillips on a lifeboat with four gunmen, it becomes a 24/7 job, requiring moral judgments and canny journalism.
Our reporters in Somalia were able to contact Phillips' captors – on their fuel-less, floating lifeboat stalked by US warships – at the start of the standoff. They issued various defiant messages to the world in barked conversations.
Having then been informed, however, that their remarks were making instant headlines on TV networks across the world, the pirate gang became less co-operative.
"We are tired of your calls. We have no time for journalists," is a polite translation of some of the last quotes our team managed to extract from the pirates.
"If you bother us again, we will order someone in Mogadishu to meet you," a gang member added before the line went dead. Often, though, the pirates are friendly and helpful, though they detest use of the p-word. "We never kill people. We are Muslims. We are marines, coastguards – not pirates," one said.
Hostages say the pirates are normally as friendly as they can be under the circumstances. While they threaten to shoot or beat them if they do not co-operate, they also roast goat for their captives and pass phones around for calls home.
News of dramatic hijacks can often break by texts, sometimes in the middle of the night, from sources. On a warship in the Gulf of Aden, one journalist was first to report the hijacking of an Italian boat from staff who got a distress call then saw communications disappear in minutes.
One of the best sources on piracy in the region is Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme. Based in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, the body is a champion for sailors' welfare, essentially a human rights group.
Mr Mwangura believes some authorities in the region, and wealthy kingpins in places like Nairobi, Dubai and London, are complicit in masterminding and sheltering piracy. Last year, Mr Mwangura accused Kenya of trying to cover up the real destination of tanks on board a hijacked Ukrainian ship.
Mr Mwangura was labelled a "mouthpiece" for pirates by the Kenyan government, and went to jail on charges of giving "alarming" information and possessing a quantity of marijuana. He was later released, but the case hangs over him in what he says is a crude attempt to gag him from telling the truth.
Kenya's sensitivity over Mr Mwangura mirrors some of the moral ambiguities over covering piracy. Are journalists fanning criminality when they speak to the gangs, or adding to a necessary understanding of the phenomenon?
Answers, please, in a bottle on the Indian Ocean.
• Andrew Cawthorne is bureau chief of Reuters news agency in east Africa.
The full article contains 1553 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
