Somali pirates go on hijack spree

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — Somali pirates were back to business as usual Tuesday, defiantly seizing four more ships with 60 hostages after U.S. sharpshooters rescued an American freighter captain. “No one can deter us,” one bandit boasted.

The freed skipper, Richard Phillips, will return home to the United States today, after reuniting with his 19-man crew in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, according to the shipping company Maersk Line Ltd.

The brigands grabbed more ships and hostages to show they would not be intimidated by President Barack Obama’s pledge to confront the high-seas bandits, according to a pirate based in the Somali coastal town of Harardhere.

“Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land,” Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone.

On Monday, Obama vowed to “halt the rise of piracy” without saying exactly how the U.S. and allies would do it.

The pirates have vowed vengeance for five colleagues slain by U.S. and French forces in two hostage rescues since Friday.

“The recent American operation, French navy attack on our colleagues or any other operation mean nothing to us,” said Idle, 26, whose gang holds a German freighter with 24 hostages.

The pirates say they are fighting illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters but have come to operate hundreds of miles from there in a sprawling 1.1 million square-mile danger zone.

The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Michael Mullen, said he takes the pirates’ threats seriously, but “we’re very well prepared to deal with anything like that.” Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

After a lull at the beginning of the year because of rough seas, the pirates since the end of February have attacked 78 ships, hijacked 19 of them and hold 16 vessels with more than 300 hostages from a dozen or so countries.

Pirates can extort $1 million and more for each ship and crew. Kenya estimates they raked in $150 million last year.

The Gulf of Aden, which links the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, is the shortest route from Asia to Europe and one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, crossed by more than 20,000 ships each year. The alternative route around the continent’s southern Cape of Good Hope takes up to two weeks longer at huge expense.

In an unusual nighttime raid, pirates seized the Greek-managed bulk carrier MV Irene E.M. before dawn Tuesday. Hours later, they commandeered the Lebanese-owned cargo ship MV Sea Horse.

On Sunday or Monday, they took two Egyptian fishing trawlers.

The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said its coast guard exchanged gunfire Monday with 14 Somali pirates who had hijacked a 23-foot Yemeni fishing vessel. Its forces freed 13 Yemeni hostages and detained two pirates, while the rest fled on a boat, the embassy said.