- Joined
- May 18, 2009
- Location
- st augustine,florida
Four American hostages held by Somali pirates since Feb. 18 were killed by their captors early today, U.S. Central Command announced in a statement.
U.S. forces tracking the pirated American yacht "Quest" for about three days moved to retake the ship when gunfire erupted on it, but "the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors," CENTCOM stated in a press release. All four died of their wounds.
"We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest," CENTCOM commander, Marine Gen. James Mattis, said in a statement.
Two pirates died during the fight with U.S. special operations forces, including one taken down with a knife, according to Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of U.S. naval forces for Central Command. U.S. forces also found two pirates already dead aboard the yacht. They took 13 pirates prisoner; two other pirates had been captured earlier.
Fox said in a briefing televised at the Pentagon that the violence began when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the yacht at the USS Sterett, a guided-missile destroyer that was 600 yards away. The RPG missed the Navy ship but then small-arms fire was heard aboard the yacht, he said.
CENTCOM officials said negotiations for the release of the hostages were still underway when violence began. Rescuers who boarded the yacht immediately tended to the Americans' wounds but were unable to save them.
The American victims included Jean and Scott Adam, a couple sailing around the world since December 2004, according to a website that has been chronicling the voyage. The couple ran a Bible ministry and was distributing Bibles to schools and churches in remote villages in areas including the Fiji Islands, Alaska, New Zealand, Central America and French Polynesia, the website stated.
The other victims were Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Wash.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh%3Dv8/3aba/3/0/%2a/p%3B236876007%3B1-0%3B0%3B9018264%3B3823-300/100%3B40846466/40864253/1%3B%3B~aopt%3D2/1/2d/0%3B~sscs%3D%3fhttp://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;236869563;60525015;l
Just before the military announced the deaths, The Associated Press reported that a Somali pirate warned in a telephone interview that if the yacht were attacked "the hostages will be the first to go."
"Some pirates have even suggested rigging the yacht with land mines and explosives so as the whole yacht explodes with the first gunshot," the pirate told the news service.
Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said he was confounded by the turn of events.
"We have heard threats against the lives of Americans before, but it strikes me as being very, very unusual why they would kill hostages outright," he said, adding that the pirates must realize that killing Americans would invite a military response.
U.S. forces tracking the pirated American yacht "Quest" for about three days moved to retake the ship when gunfire erupted on it, but "the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors," CENTCOM stated in a press release. All four died of their wounds.
"We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest," CENTCOM commander, Marine Gen. James Mattis, said in a statement.
Two pirates died during the fight with U.S. special operations forces, including one taken down with a knife, according to Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of U.S. naval forces for Central Command. U.S. forces also found two pirates already dead aboard the yacht. They took 13 pirates prisoner; two other pirates had been captured earlier.
Fox said in a briefing televised at the Pentagon that the violence began when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the yacht at the USS Sterett, a guided-missile destroyer that was 600 yards away. The RPG missed the Navy ship but then small-arms fire was heard aboard the yacht, he said.
CENTCOM officials said negotiations for the release of the hostages were still underway when violence began. Rescuers who boarded the yacht immediately tended to the Americans' wounds but were unable to save them.
The American victims included Jean and Scott Adam, a couple sailing around the world since December 2004, according to a website that has been chronicling the voyage. The couple ran a Bible ministry and was distributing Bibles to schools and churches in remote villages in areas including the Fiji Islands, Alaska, New Zealand, Central America and French Polynesia, the website stated.
The other victims were Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Wash.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh%3Dv8/3aba/3/0/%2a/p%3B236876007%3B1-0%3B0%3B9018264%3B3823-300/100%3B40846466/40864253/1%3B%3B~aopt%3D2/1/2d/0%3B~sscs%3D%3fhttp://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;236869563;60525015;l
Just before the military announced the deaths, The Associated Press reported that a Somali pirate warned in a telephone interview that if the yacht were attacked "the hostages will be the first to go."
"Some pirates have even suggested rigging the yacht with land mines and explosives so as the whole yacht explodes with the first gunshot," the pirate told the news service.
Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said he was confounded by the turn of events.
"We have heard threats against the lives of Americans before, but it strikes me as being very, very unusual why they would kill hostages outright," he said, adding that the pirates must realize that killing Americans would invite a military response.