The Somali pirates picked off by Navy sharpshooters after holding Capt. Richard Phillips hostage for five days were a ragged band of boys with little experience — but plenty of weapons, officials said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the four brigands who took Phillips captive after a botched hijacking of the Maersk Alabama were only 17 to 19 years old.
“Untrained teenagers with heavy weapons,” Gates told a students and faculty at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Va. “Everybody in the room knows the consequences of that.”
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On Sunday, Navy SEAL snipers on the USS Bainbridge — perched on the ship’s fantail in choppy seas — fatally shot three of the brigands in the head on the lifeboat where they’d stowed Phillips.
Officials now are considering whether to bring the fourth pirate, who surrendered shortly before the shootings, to the United States, where he’d likely go on trial in New York or Washington, or turn him over to Kenya.
Gates warned that other desperate Somali youths will continue attacking merchant vessels in hopes of scoring huge ransoms.
“There is no purely military solution,” Gates said. “As long as you’ve got this incredible number of poor people and the risks are relatively small, there’s really no way to control it unless you get something on land that begins to change the equation for these kids.”
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Meanwhile, the American military yesterday was considering attacking pirate bases in Somalia, sending more Navy ships to the region and changing how naval vessels already there deal with the problem, officials said.
It was also weighing giving economic aid to destitute Somali residents, and is developing plans to help the country’s shaky government train security forces and develop a coast guard.
“We are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region,” where over a dozen ships and more than 200 crewmen are still in the hands of sea bandits, President Obama said.
“To achieve that goal, we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks; we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise; and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.”
In a possibly related incident yesterday, Somali insurgents fired mortars at the airport in the capital, Mogadishu, as a plane carrying New Jersey Democratic Rep. Donald Payne was about to take off.
Payne and the other passengers were unaware of the danger, the congressman said last night, learning about the incident only after landing in Nairobi, Kenya.
The mortar rounds killed at least five Somali civilians on the ground, local residents said. The insurgent group al-Shabab, which has ties to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility.
Shane Murphy, who commanded the Maersk Alabama after Phillips was taken hostage, warned, “It is a crisis. Wake up!
“This crew was lucky to be out of this with every one of us alive. We won’t be that lucky again,” Murphy said in Mombasa, Kenya. “We would like to implore President Obama to use all his resources and increase his commitment to end this Somali pirate scourge.”
Pirates warned they’ll seek revenge for the killing of Phillips’ captors, as well as for buccaneers shot by French commandos during the rescue of a yacht last Friday.
“We have decided to kill US and French sailors if they happen to be among our future hostages,” said Abdullahai Ahmed, a pirate in Harardhere, Somalia.