HELD BY PIRATES

US skipper is free

04-13-2009 | AFP

Panama Star "I can confirm that Captain (Richard) Phillips has been safely recovered," said spokeswoman Laura Tischler, without providing additional details on the operation.

CNN television, citing a senior US official, reported that three of the four pirates holding Phillips had been killed, and the fourth pirate was in custody.

Phillips, who was unharmed, had been taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, one of the two US naval warships involved in the tense stand-off near the Somali coast, according to the network.

The breakthrough came shortly after four freed hostages, including the widow and three-year-old son of a French sailor killed in a special forces shootout with Somali pirates, landed back in Paris. Phillips had been held aboard a lifeboat since Wednesday when his ship's unarmed crew managed to regain control of their Danish-operated container ship from the Somali pirates, the Maersk Alabama. The fleeing pirates bundled Phillips into the lifeboat as they escaped. They had demanded a ransom and said Saturday they planned to move Phillips to another ship held by their "friends."