Somali pirates have shot and killed four US hostages aboard a hijacked yacht, ‘The Quest’, prompting US Special Forces to storm the vessel.
Two pirates were killed by the soldiers, while the bodies of two more pirates were also found on board. 15 pirates were arrested and taken aboard the nearby USS Enterprise aircraft carrier for extradition to the US.
Somali pirates claimed the four hostages were killed in retaliation for a preemptive strike by US forces.
“Our colleagues called us this morning [saying] that they were being attacked by a US warship,” said a pirate to news agency Reuters over the telephone.
“The US warship shot in the head two of my comrades who were on the deck of the yacht by the time they alerted us. This is the time we ordered the other comrades inside the yacht to react – kill the four Americans because there was no other alternative – then our line got cut.”
Another pirate from a Somali pirate haven told Reuters that “the killing of those four Americans and our comrades is a fair game that has started. Everybody will react if his life is in danger. We should not agree to be killed and let the hostages be freed.”
The claims were dismissed by the US Navy, which had been negotiating for the release of the hostages.
The hostages were identified as Jean and Scott Adam, from Los Angeles and holidaymakers Macay and Bob Riggle, from Seattle.
US authorities have recently voiced concern that pirate activity is moving further into the Indian Ocean, towards the Maldives.
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minivan news' quality of writing has gone down so much. it's a nightmare to get through this article, which deals with an important issue, due to the many grammatical, syntactic and spelling errors throughout. come on JJ, don't you EDIT the work before it's published?