American crew retakes hijacked ship, Pentagon says.U.S. ship's captain reportedly a hostage

(CNN) -- Crew members of a U.S.-flagged ship have regained control of the vessel from pirates who seized it, a Pentagon official said Wednesday,Pirates took the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama early Wednesday.
The crew is believed to be safe, and one pirate is in custody, the official said. It's unclear whether other pirates remain on board the ship or whether they have fled, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
John Reinhart, CEO and president of Norfolk, Virginia-based Maersk Line Ltd., which owns the ship, declined to confirm reports that the crew had regained control of the vessel.
"We had one communications earlier today from the crew, we were told the crew was safe," Reinhart said.
The vessel, carrying 20 American crew members, was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 kilometers (310 miles) off Somalia's coast, according to a statement from Maersk Line Ltd.
The hijacking was the sixth over the past week.
Don't Miss
African pirates copy ideas for ransom riches
U.S. warns of dangers off Somalia coast
Pirates seize British cargo ship in Gulf of Aden
U.S. Navy detains, releases six suspected pirates
The ship was attacked about 7:30 a.m. when the nearest U.S. Navy warship was about 300 nautical miles away, government sources said. On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy warned mariners that pirates were attacking ships extending hundreds of miles offshore.
Maersk spokesman Michael Storgaard would not provide any details about the security arrangements on board the Maersk Alabama.
"We have very strict policies on the vessel ... crews are trained to handle these types of situations," Storgaard said from Maersk's headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Watch as Maersk spokesman talks of the hijacking »
The Maersk Line is one of the Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors, but the Maersk Alabama was not under the Pentagon's contract at the time of the attack, according to Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. military's 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
The Maersk Alabama is 155 meters (508 feet) long and 25 meters (82 feet) wide. It was built in 1998.
The vessel was carrying food aid to East Africa, including shipments from the United Nations' World Food Program, a Maersk statement said.
"There is a task force present in the region to deter any type of piracy, but the challenge remains that the area is so big and it is hard to monitor all the time," Christensen said. "The area we patrol is over a million square miles. We can't be everywhere at once."
He said U.S.-flagged ships are not usually escorted by the U.S. Navy unless they request it. See how pirate attacks have increased »
Pirates are changing their tactics and taking advantage of tens of thousands of square miles of open water where fewer military ships patrol, according to U.S. military officials.
Recent attacks off Somalia's coast have taken place south of the area patrolled by U.S. and coalition ships.
"They [pirates] are going where we are not, they are looking for targets where there is limited coalition presence," according to a U.S. military briefing document shown to CNN.
Coalition ships mainly patrol in the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and northern Somalia as ships come out of and head toward the mouth of the Red Sea.
Navy officials say about 12 to 15 coalition ships are patrolling in the Gulf of Aden.
"Despite increased naval presence in the region, ships and aircraft are unlikely to be close enough to provide support to vessels under attack. The scope and magnitude of the problem cannot be understated," according to a news release from the U.S. Navy.
Between January and February, only two pirate attacks off Somalia were reported, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy attacks worldwide.
In March, attacks in the same area spiked to 15, according to the bureau, and the attacks have continued into April.
On Monday, pirates seized a British-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden. Also on Monday, a fishing trawler was hijacked and used to hijack other fishing vessels, the bureau said.
Pentagon officials say pirates are holding 15 ships off the Somali coast. According to U.S. Navy statistics, pirates attacked four ships between Saturday and Monday.
Pirates typically use small boats with a limited range to attack ships just a few miles off the coastline..more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/08/ship.hijacked/index.html
U.S. ship's captain reportedly a hostage
MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 8 (UPI) -- Somali pirates who boarded a U.S.-flagged cargo ship and were overpowered by its crew Wednesday reportedly took the ship's captain hostage, officials said.
The Maersk Alabama was transporting humanitarian aid to Kenya when it was hijacked, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The 20-member crew overpowered the pirates and retook the ship, but the ship's captain was reportedly being held captive by some of the pirates who fled into the ship's lifeboat, a U.S. defense official said.
Still unclear was how the U.S. crew regained control. One crew member told CNN that a pirate was briefly held, but released in an unsuccessful attempt to exchange the pirate for the captain.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/08/US-ships-captain-reportedly-a-hostage/UPI-64821239190125/

Pirates hijack U.S.-flagged ship off Somalia
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-somalia-hijack-americans9-2009apr09,0,7672354.story
Pirate Ransom Helped Somalia Islamist Militants

UN identifies two Somali piracy networks..Somali villagers seize Iran boat

5 HABAR-GIDIR pirates drown with ransom share