Africa
Obama urged to lead fight on Somali pirates
By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled
Apr 13, 2009, 16:46

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The crew of a U.S. ship attacked off Somalia called on President Barack Obama to lead the battle to stamp out piracy on Monday, after U.S. forces freed the ship's captain to end a five-day hostage drama.

Navy snipers shot dead three Somali pirates holding Captain Richard Phillips in a drifting lifeboat circled by U.S. warships. Other pirates vowed revenge on Americans.

More than 250 hostages of many nationalities are still being held along the Somali coast by pirates who have seized dozens of vessels, from tankers to yachts, in recent months.

Helicopters once again flew over pirate bases near Eyl on the Somali coast overnight after Phillips' rescue.

"They killed our friends on the lifeboat and we thought helicopters would bomb us in Eyl last night," a pirate in Eyl, who called himself Farah, told Reuters.

"We were mourning for dead friends and then roaring planes came -- grief upon grief. America has become our new enemy."

The U.S. Navy said the decision to shoot Phillips' kidnappers was a split-second one, taken because he appeared to be in "imminent danger."

"They were pointing the AK-47s at the captain," Vice Admiral William Gortney, head of the U.S. Naval Central Command, said.

"Well-armed pirates on the tugboat ordered us to keep away from areas near them. Two of the pirates came down to town to persuade residents to allow them to stay but I don't know the outcome," fisherman Jama Feysal told Reuters by phone.

The tug, carrying 10 Italians, 5 Romanians and a Croatian, was seized on Saturday. Mohamed Salah Dubeys, a Somaliland military commander, said the pirates were also holding two Egyptian ships with 24 other hostages in the area.

Obama, spared another thorny foreign policy crisis to add to his problems with the U.S. economic meltdown and the war in Afghanistan, vowed to curb piracy. [nN12332343]

"To achieve that goal, we must continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, be prepared to interdict acts of piracy and ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes," he said in a statement.

U.S. congressman Donald Payne flew to Mogadishu on Monday, making what is believed to be the first visit to the Somali capital by a senior American politician since 1994. Mortars were fired at him as he left by plane.

PIRATES VOW REVENGE

Somali pirates vowed to avenge the U.S. shootings of their comrades, as well as a French military assault to rescue a yacht on Friday in which two pirates were killed and three captured.

"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," Hussein, a pirate, told Reuters by satellite phone.

The Maersk Alabama, carrying food aid for Somalis, was attacked far out in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, but its 20 American crew regained control. Phillips volunteered to go with the pirates in a lifeboat in exchange for the crew's safety.

"The actions of Captain Phillips and the civilian mariners of Maersk-Alabama were heroic," Gortney said. "Captain Phillips selflessly put his life in the hands of these armed criminals in order to protect his crew."

Friends of the pirates told Reuters they wanted $2 million (1.35 million pounds).

Local elder Ismail Haji Ahmed told Reuters by phone from the coastal village of Eyl, a notorious pirate base: "Roaring helicopters terrified us so much that no one slept last night.

"If we could flee from Eyl, the planes could bomb the pirates. We were confined to our houses and could not even go to latrines."

So far, pirates have generally treated hostages well, sometimes roasting goat meat for them and even letting them phone loved ones. The worst violence has been the occasional beating. No hostages are known to have been killed by pirates.

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