Awwwww look at the doggie.
The raid took place as the 8.5 metre (28ft) lifeboat, without fuel, drifted to within 20 miles of the hostile Somali coast, where it would have been much more difficult for US forces to keep track of the American hostage.
Captain Phillips’s release brought an abrupt end to the five-day stand-off that threatened to embarrass President Barack Obama, who has yet to comment on the incident and was facing mounting criticism in the US.
Captain Phillips, 53, a former Boston taxi driver, was taken hostage after the crew of his container ship, the Maersk Alabama, resisted a pirate attack on Wednesday as it carried food aid to Mombasa, Kenya.
He had reportedly been tied up aboard the lifeboat since making his first escape bid by jumping into the sea on Thursday night, before being recaptured by a pirate who leapt in after him.
The pirates fired warning shots at a US Navy launch on Saturday as it approached the lifeboat, forcing the US vessel to withdraw. Negotiations between the pirates and American officials broke down on Saturday over demands that the pirates be given an amnesty in return for handing over Captain Phillips.
Somali clan elders had launched a fresh attempt to end the hostage crisis yesterday despite military helicopters buzzing pirate lairs ashore. Mohamoud Jama, a Somali elder in Garacad, said the elders wanted free passage for the pirates, while the Americans insisted on handing the kidnappers to authorities in Puntland, the northern Somali region where many pirates are based.
Residents of Haradheere on the Somali coast said one helicopter landed briefly. Ahmed Haji Abdi said: “We thought there would be air raids this morning. Haradheere is full of pirates.”
Fresh details of how the crew of Captain Phillips’s ship repulsed the pirate attack emerged as the vessel arrived safely at its original destination of Mombasa, Kenya, with an 18-man guard of US Navy Seals aboard.
The crew told how they scrambled into a safe room once they realised the ship was being boarded. The ship’s chief engineer, A. T. M Reza, said he volunteered to show one of the pirates around the engine room. There he used an icepick to overpower the pirate, who turned out to be the gang leader.
Other crew members bound the captive’s hands and feet with rope before using him as a bargaining chip to negotiate the release of the ship. But the pirates had scuttled their own boat and demanded another vessel and fuel.
Captain Phillips offered himself as a hostage to end the standoff, on the understanding that the prisoners would be exchanged as the pirates left. However, they went back on their word, insisting that the Maersk Alabama follow them into Somali waters.
“The captain is a hero,” one crew member shouted from the deck of the 17,000-tonne ship as it docked. “He saved our lives by giving himself up.”
The FBI has declared the ship a crime scene. Investigators were seen photographing areas of the deck yesterday in preparation for a possible US trial of the captured pirate.
Joseph Murphy, father of the Maersk Alabama’s chief mate, Shane Murphy, issued a statement sending his “warm regards” to the Phillips family.
“Our prayers have been answered on this Easter Sunday. I have made it clear throughout this terrible ordeal that my son and my family will be indebted to Mr Phillips for his bravery.
“If not for his sacrifice this kidnapping and act of terror could have ended up much worse.”
timesonline.co.uk