BREAKING NEWS: The U.S. Navy reports captured American ship captain freed, 3 Somali pirates killed in firefight .

Navy Rescues Captain, 3 Pirates Killed

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, AP
posted: ONE MINUTE AGOcomments:

MOMBASA, Kenya (April 12) - An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.

One of the pirates was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.

Four days after Somali pirates took the captain of a U.S.-flagged ship hostage off the coast of Somalia, an American intelligence official said Sunday that he has been freed. Richard Phillips, above, was being held captive since Wednesday on a lifeboat after several pirates boarded the the Maersk Alabama in an attempt to hijack it. Phillips surrendered himself to safeguard his men.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)

Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby.

The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A government official and others in Somali with knowledge of the situation had reported hours earlier that negotiations for Phillips' release had broken down.

The district commissioner of the central Mudug region said talks went on all day Saturday, with clan elders from his area talking by satellite telephone and through a translator with Americans, but collapsed late Saturday night.

"The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates," said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.

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