Pirates warn US against hostage rescue attempt

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Pirates warn US against hostage rescue attempt

1 hour, 25 minutes ago

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Somali pirates holding a US captain hostage warned on Saturday

that using force to free him would end in " disaster, " as they prepared to move

him following a deadly French raid on a separate boat.

After French commandos stormed a yacht held by other pirates in a raid that left

one hostage and two gunmen dead, pirate commander Abdi Garad told AFP the

American captive would be moved from the lifeboat where he was being held.

Only four pirates have been guarding Captain on the lifeboat,

and transferring him to a larger ship could give them better defences as the US

military seeks to free him.

" There are not any developments still on the standoff with the American

officials, " Garad said by phone from the northern Somali pirate lair of Eyl.

" We are planning to transfer the hostage on to one of the ships our friends are

holding around Garacad area so that we can wait, " he added, referring to an area

along Somalia's coast, though he did not specify which ship.

US Navy forces have been pouring into the region amid the standoff over the

American, who was captain of a Danish-operated container ship carrying

international aid that pirates tried to take this week.

" I'm afraid this matter is likely to create disaster because it's taking too

long and we are getting information that the Americans are planning rescue

tricks like the French commandos did, " Garad said.

The attacks on the French yacht and the aid ship have further highlighted the

hijackings wreaking havoc on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

has been held since Wednesday, when four pirates hijacked the Maersk

Alabama, which was carrying 5,000 tonnes of UN aid destined for African

refugees. They are demanding a ransom for his release.

The abductors were overpowered by the unarmed American crew, but they bundled

onto the lifeboat.

On Friday, jumped into the water and tried to swim towards the nearby

US destroyer the USS Bainbridge, prompting the pirates to jump in and recapture

him.

Somali elders and parents of pirates holding the American were seeking to free

the American on Saturday " without any guns or ransom, " according to

Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.

" They have already travelled from inland Galkayo to Garacad at the seashore and

are ready to travel by boat towards the scene, " he said in a statement.

But a spokesman for Somalia's hardline Islamist group Shebab backed the recent

rash of pirate attacks, blaming the international community for depleting the

country's marine resources and dumping their waste here.

" I believe that the pirates are not wrong to hijack the ships because there is

no reason for the international ships to use Somalia's waters, " Sheikh Muktar

Robow told reporters in the south-central Somali city of Baidoa.

The separate French raid came six days after the yacht, the Tanit, was seized in

the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden and the operation freed three adults and a

three-year-old child.

Florent Lemacon, owner of the yacht and the child's father, was killed.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin said ON Saturday an autopsy and

investigation would determine what happened and " we cannot rule out " that the

shot that killed Lemacon came from French commandos.

" I believe that it was the best possible decision, " Morin said on French radio

of the raid. " We did everything to save the hostages' lives. "

The four ex-hostages -- Lemacon's wife Chloe, their three-year-old son Colin and

two other adults -- were due in Paris on Sunday aboard a French-chartered plane,

Morin told AFP.

A French presidential spokesman said earlier that the Tanit had been heading

toward the coast and the pirates' threats were " becoming more and more

specific. "

Somali pirates have defied an international naval presence in the region to

carry out hijackings.