PARIS/NAIROBI: The French Navy stormed a French sailboat being held by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, killing one hostage and two pirates in the operation, a presidential statement said yesterday.
The navy also freed four remaining hostages, including one child, who were seized Saturday when pirates boarded their ship, the Tanit. Three other pirates were taken prisoner.
It was not immediately clear where the rescue operation occurred. It did not appear to be in any proximity to the current standoff involving an American captain being held hostage. It was the third time the French have freed hostages from the hands of pirates but the first time that a hostage had been killed. The French presidential statement said the boat was being steered toward the Somali coast.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said the death of one of five hostages came at the end of a two-day ordeal in the pirate-infested waters where the seizure of vessels by Somali pirates has become a common occurrence.
The American captain held hostage by four Somali pirates made a desperate escape attempt yesterday but was recaptured after they fired shots, and officials said other pirates sought to reinforce their mates by sailing hijacked ships to the scene of the standoff with other captives aboard for use as human shield.
A Somali in contact with a pirate leader said the captors want a ransom and are ready to kill the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, if attacked.
The US was bolstering its force by dispatching other warships to the site off the Horn of Africa, where a US destroyer shadowed the drifting lifeboat carrying Phillips.
He was taken hostage in the pirates’ failed effort to hijack the cargo ship Maersk Alabama on Wednesday.
The pirates’ strategy is to link up with their mates holding other hostages, and get Phillips to lawless Somalia, where they could hide him and make it difficult to stage a rescue. That would give the pirates more leverage and a stronger negotiating position to discuss a ransom. Anchoring near shore also means they could get to land quickly if attacked.
