Destroyer arrives to assist haber- gidir hawiye hijacked U.S. freighter

(CNN) -- The destroyer USS Bainbridge has arrived on the scene where a U.S. freighter was hijacked early Wednesday off the Horn Africa, a senior defense official said.The crew of the Maersk Alabama recaptured their ship from pirates, but their captain remained in the hands of the marauders, one of its officers said."There's four Somali pirates, and they've got our captain," Ken Quinn said in a ship-to-shore phone interview.Capt. Richard Phillips was being held in the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat after the pirates reneged on an agreement to exchange him for a captured pirate, Quinn said."We returned him, but they didn't return the captain," he said. Quinn describes the hijacking to CNN »The hijackers boarded the Alabama early Wednesday, when it was about 350 miles off the coast of Somalia, a haven for pirates attacks in the Gulf of Aden.At 7 p.m. ET, a Navy P-3 aircraft flying over the scene spotted a lifeboat, a senior U.S. Navy official said.A spokesman for the Maersk line said the pirates had departed the lifeboat and none of the 20 people remaining aboard the ship was hurt.The 780-foot Alabama was carrying food aid bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services when it was seized, the ship's owner said. Watch officer's wife comment on attack »Crew member describes taking down a pirate U.S. warns of dangers off Somalia coastAfrican pirates copy ideas for ransom richesExplainer: How pirates attack ships -- and how to dodge itJoe Murphy, whose son Shane is the ship's first officer, said the hijacking is "a wake-up call for America.""They're making more money in piracy than the gross national product of Somalia, so it's not going to go away any time soon until there's international concern and international law enforcement," said Murphy, an instructor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.The Maersk Alabama is the first U.S. ship to be seized in the latest wave of piracy off largely lawless Somalia.The Gulf of Aden, at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, is a key transit point for ships coming into or out of the Suez Canal. In 2008, Somalia-based pirates attacked more than 100 ships in the gulf or off the Horn of Africa, capturing about 40 of them. The ships and their crews typically are held for ransom.After a lull in early 2009, attacks surged again in March, with 15 attacks reported to the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy. A new international task force under U.S. command was set up in January to crack down on the problem, and the European Union, India, China and Russia have ships deployed to the area as well.Since 2006, the United States has had an agreement with Kenya to try captured pirates with American assistance. A 1988 treaty gives every nation the authority to pursue, capture and try pirates, regardless of the nationality of the victim, said Tom Fuentes, a former FBI official who worked with Kenyan authorities to prosecute pirates. See how pirate attacks have increased »But the United States can't tell shipping companies how to deal with hijackings, he said."Every shipping company so far has paid the ransom, and every victim has been released unharmed up until this point," he said.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for more international cooperation during an appearance with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi-Fihri on Wednesday."I think Morocco was the very first country that recognized us, going back a long time," Clinton said. "We worked to end piracy off the coast of Morocco all those years ago, and we are going to work together to end that kind of criminal activity anywhere on the high seas." Watch Clinton comment on attack »The pirates were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, while the freighter's crew carried no weapons, Quinn said...more...http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/08/ship.hijacked/index.html

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