Captain Philips (right) unharmed, three Somali pirates killed via snipers — at night–on choppy seas no less. — Ed.
Navy snipers on the fantail of a destroyer cut down three Somali piratesin a lifeboat and rescued an American sea captain in a surprisenighttime assault in choppy seas Easter Sunday, ending a five-daystandoff between a team of rogue gunmen and the world’s most powerfulmilitary.
It was a stunning ending to an Indian Ocean odyssey that began when 53-year-old freighter Capt. Richard Phillips was taken hostage Wednesday by pirates who tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged MaerskAlabama. The Vermont native was held on a tiny lifeboat that begandrifting precariously toward Somalia’s anarchic, gun-plagued shores.
One of the pirates pointed an AK-47 at the back of Phillips, who wastied up and in “imminent danger” of being killed when the commander ofthe nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order hismen to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said. The lifeboat was being towedby the Bainbridge at the time, he said.
Afourth pirate was in discussions with naval authorities about Phillips’fate when the rescue took place. He is in U.S. custody and could facecould face life in a U.S. prison.
The rescuewas a dramatic blow to the pirates who have preyed on internationalshipping and hold more than a dozen ships with about 230 foreignsailors. But it is unlikely to do much to quell the region’s growingpirate threat, which has transformed one of the world’s busiestshipping lanes into one of its most dangerous. It also risked provokingretaliatory attacks.
“This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it,” said Gortney, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek shipanchored in the Somali town of Gaan, said: “Every country will betreated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the onemourning and crying,” he told The Associated Press. “We will retaliate(for) the killings of our men.”