Marines recapture ship from Somali pirates

NAIROBI, Kenya — As helicopters hovered nearby, 24 Marines boarded a hijacked ship in the Gulf of Aden early Thursday, arrested the nine pirates on board and freed the ship — all without firing a shot, the U.S. military said.

U.S. officials said the rescue appeared to be the first time the American military had boarded a ship commandeered by Somali pirates, who have been hijacking vessel after vessel off Somalia's coast and wreaking havoc on some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

The Americans, however, are active in the area. Last year, Navy SEAL snipers killed three pirates who were holding a U.S. cargo-ship captain in a lifeboat, after he had offered himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew.

Despite the intense international naval presence in the region, the pirates are on track to have another banner year, with more than 30 ships hijacked in 2010 and tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.

According to U.S. officials, two teams of 12 Marines each motored up in inflatable boats to the hijacked ship, a 436-foot-long German-owned cargo vessel, the Magellan Star. A band of Somali pirates had seized the ship and its crew of 11 in the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, on Wednesday. The vessel was carrying steel chains.

The Marines climbed up portable ladders and swiftly took over the ship, U.S. officials said. Two helicopters hovered overhead, throwing down cones of light. A Turkish frigate, part of a U.S.-led anti-piracy task force, was nearby. All nine pirates surrendered without a shot, U.S. officials said. The Magellan Star's crew was safe, too.

Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost, a spokeswoman for the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said the Marines had been able to stay in constant contact with the crew on board, receiving specific information about the number of pirates and their locations on the ship, as well as the location of crew members. That lent military planners a big advantage when organizing the raid, Derrick-Frost said.

Lt. John Fage, a Navy spokesman, also credited extensive coordination among several players.

It is not clear what will happen to the captured pirates. They are in custody aboard one of the ships in the task force, and officers are awaiting orders from higher levels. While hundreds of Somali pirates have recently been sent to jail in Kenya, the Seychelles or Somalia, and a few have been taken to Europe and the United States, many more have been set free by Western navies in a controversial "catch and release" approach because of the complications of prosecuting gunmen arrested on the high seas.