by Associated Press
Published: Wed, April 08, 2009 - 7:28 am CST
Last Updated: Wed, April 08, 2009 - 2:13 pm CST
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say an American warship and ahalf dozen others are headed to the scene where pirates captured a
vessel with a U.S. crew off Somalia's coast.
One official says the destroyer USS Bainbridge is headed there.
Another official says there are six or seven ships on the way.
A person aboard the Maersk Alabama, reached by The Associated
Press by satellite phone, says crew members had retaken control of
the ship. But pirates were holding the captain as a hostage in a
lifeboat in waters nearby.
The White House says President Barack Obama
was alerted to the seizure of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship by pirates
off the Somali coast as he was flying back to the nation's capital
from Baghdad.
Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said Obama is
following the situation closely.
He said the president was told of the hijacking shortly after it
occurred, during his return flight from Baghdad. Obama had been in
Iraq to pay an unannounced visit to U.S. forces and meet with
officials.
McDonough said the White House has been working closely with
U.S. allies on trying to blunt the piracy threat in the shipping
lanes along the East African coast. He said that includes more
surveillance and a greater military presence in the western Indian
Ocean.
The U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama
was on its way to Kenya with relief supplies when pirates hijacked
it off the coast of Somalia.
The CEO of the Maersk line says the ship's manifest shows it was
carrying 401 containers of food aid from USAID, the World Food
Program, Catholic Relief and Serving God Ministries.
Maritime experts say it's unusual for an international ship to
fly a U.S. flag and carry an American crew. One researcher at the
investment firm Jefferies & Co. says about 95 percent of
international ships carry foreign flags because of lower costs,
among other factors.
But he also notes that ships like Maersk Alabama, operated by or
on behalf of the U.S. government, must carry U.S. flags, and
therefore, must employ a crew of U.S. citizens.
While international anti-piracy patrols
monitor the Gulf of Aden, analysts say attacks have picked up in
the past week as Somali pirates shift to targets farther down the
coast of Africa.
The Combined Maritime Forces has issued a new advisory
highlighting several recent attacks that occurred hundreds of miles
off the Somali coast. It states that merchant mariners should be
increasingly vigilant when operating in those waters.
The International Maritime Bureau says besides the U.S.-flagged
ship attacked today, there are currently 13 other hijacked ships
with 240 crew being held off the coast of Somalia.
The Somali pirates are typically trained fighters, who carry
automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades. They
use speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment,
and operate from large mother ships farther out at sea.
Mobile Connection To Somali Pirate Incident
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