Navy Rescues Captain, 3 Pirates Killed
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY,
AP
posted: 58 MINUTES AGO
MOMBASA, Kenya (April 12) – An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.
One of the pirates was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.
Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A government official and others in Somali with knowledge of the situation had reported hours earlier that negotiations for Phillips’ release had broken down.
The district commissioner of the central Mudug region said talks went on all day Saturday, with clan elders from his area talking by satellite telephone and through a translator with Americans, but collapsed late Saturday night.
“The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates,” said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.
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This is great news!
We face similar situation in Nigeria. Shell, Agip Mobil, and Elf staff (Whites) are abducted almost on a daily basis. They are usually held as hostages for big ransom.And the government apparently is doing nothing to deter these boys. I’m beginning to wonder why we dont see swift rescue operations authorised by the FBI, or CIA carried out on Nigerian soil to rescue these foreigners. Most of the time the ransom is paid!!!