Pat Dollard

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If this isn’t war, I don’t know what is. You wanna end this? Take out one Somali village by air every time a ship is captured. They’ll find new work.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Escalating a dramatic Indian Ocean standoff, more U.S. warships – as well as pirate reinforcements with an international gallery of hostages – rushed Friday toward the spot where four Somali bandits are holding a U.S. sea captain aboard a drifting lifeboat.

The pirates apparently fear being shot or arrested if they hand over Capt. Richard Phillips – captured in a failed effort to seize the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday – and hope to link up with their colleagues who are using Russian, German, Filipino and other hostages captured in recent days as human shields.

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said U.S. warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.

“We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days,” he said.

Pirates have been holding Phillips hostage aboard the lifeboat since his crew thwarted the attack Wednesday on the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama.

Mohamed Samaw, a Somali resident of the pirate stronghold in central Eyl town, who claims to have a “share” in a British-owned ship hijacked Monday, said four foreign ships previously captured by pirates are heading toward the lifeboat. A total of 54 hostages are on two of the ships, citizens of China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines, Tuvalu, Indonesia and Taiwan.

“The pirates have summoned assistance – skiffs and motherships are heading towards the area from the coast,” said a Nairobi-based diplomat, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “We knew they were gathering yesterday.”

Samaw said two ships left Eyl on Wednesday afternoon. A third sailed from Haradhere, another pirate base in central Somalia, and the fourth one was a Taiwanese fishing vessel seized Monday that was already only 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the lifeboat.

He said the ships include the German cargo ship Hansa Stavanger, seized earlier this month. The ship’s crew of 24 is made up of five Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians, two Filipinos and 12 Tuvalus.

Another man identified as a pirate by three different residents of Haradhere also said the captured German ship had been sent to the rescue.

“They had asked us for reinforcement and we have already sent a good number of well-equipped colleagues, who were holding a German cargo ship,” said the pirate who asked that only his first name, Badow, be used to protect him from reprisals.

“We are not intending to harm the captain, so that we hope our colleagues would not be harmed as long as they hold him,” Badow said.

“All we need, first, is a safe route to escape with the captain, and then (negotiate) ransom later,” he added.

Phillips thwarted Wednesday’s takeover of the Maersk Alabama by telling his crew of about 20 to lock themselves in a room, the crew told stateside relatives.

FBI hostage negotiators started Thursday to work with the U.S. military to secure Phillips’ release. The sea captain has a radio and has contacted the Navy and the crew of the Alabama to say he is unharmed, Maersk said. Company spokesman Kevin Speers told AP Radio the lifeboat was out of fuel and “dead in the water.”

Most of the lifeboats are about 28 feet (8.5 meters) long and carry water and food for 34 people for 10 days, said Joseph Murphy.

The lifeboats are covered and Murphy, speaking after a briefing by the shipping company, said he suspects the pirates have closed the ports to avoid sniper fire.

Maersk said the lifeboat is within sight of the USS Bainbridge, the Navy destroyer that arrived on the scene earlier Thursday.
Gen. Petraeus said other warships would arrive shortly. U.S. officials said the guided-missile frigate USS Halyburton was among ships en route.

The show of force follows an increase in the number of attacks and the first one on a U.S.-flagged ship. The vessels strengthen surveillance of the area and may dissuade pirates from seizing another ship, but there are not enough to mount a blockade in the danger zone that sprawls across 1.1 million square miles (2.85 million square kilometers), said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss operational matters.

The Alabama was the sixth vessel in a week to be hit by pirates who have extorted tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.
U.S. President Barack Obama is getting regular updates on the situation, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the United States will take whatever steps are needed to protect U.S. shipping interests against pirates.

Steve Romano, a retired head of the FBI hostage negotiation team, said he doesn’t recall the FBI ever negotiating with pirates before, but he said this situation is similar to other standoffs. Although pirates release the vast majority of their hostages unharmed, the difficulty will be negotiating with people who clearly have no way out, he said.

“There’s always a potential for tragedy here, and when people feel their options are limited, they sometimes react in more unpredictable and violent ways,” Romano said.