US Navy frees captain from Somali pirates

A US captain seized by Somali pirates and held hostage in the Indian Ocean for five days was freed yesterday, the US state department said.

"I can confirm that Captain (Richard) Phillips has been safely recovered," said spokesman Laura Tischler, without providing additional details on the operation.

CNN television, citing a senior US official, reported that three of the four pirates holding Capt. Phillips had been killed, and the fourth pirate was in custody.

Capt. Phillips, who was unharmed, had been taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, one of the two US naval warships involved in the tense stand-off near the Somali coast, according to the network.

The breakthrough came shortly after four freed hostages, including the widow and three-year-old son of a French sailor killed in a special forces shootout with Somali pirates, landed back in Paris.

Capt. Phillips had been held aboard a lifeboat since Wednesday when his ship's unarmed crew managed to regain control of their Danish-operated container ship from the Somali pirates, the Maersk Alabama.

The fleeing pirates bundled Capt. Phillips into the lifeboat as they escaped. They had demanded a ransom and said on Saturday they planned to move Capt. Phillips to another ship held by their "friends".

US navy forces had been steadily pouring into the region over the past few days.

Negotiations to free Capt. Phillips had broken down on Saturday after US authorities insisted the pirates be arrested after handing him over, a Somali elder Mohamoud Jama said by phone from Garacad.

However, after talks resumed, a top senator warned that the US approach to the problem was "going to have to be much more aggressive".

"We're not going to give in to blackmail, and we're not going to allow them to continue to do what they're doing," Republican Senator Tom Coburn told the Fox News yesterday.

The New York Times had reported that the pirates had fired on a small US navy vessel that tried to approach the lifeboat on Saturday.

Capt. Phillips' former command, the Maersk Alabama, arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday.

Its crew were kept on board while FBI agents debriefed them, but one of them described their captain as a hero, in comments to reporters on the dockside.

In France meanwhile, Chloe Lemacon, her three-year-old son Colin and two friends, touched down yesterday at a military airport near Paris after they were freed by French commandos on Friday.

The yacht's owner and father of the child, Florent Lemacon, was killed in the raid along with two pirates. Three others were taken prisoner.