No mercy next time

A SOMALI pirate chief threatened to target Americans in revenge for the rescue of a US captain in an operation that killed three pirates under his command, in comments to AFP Monday. -- PHOTO: AFP

MOGADISHU - A SOMALI pirate chief threatened to target Americans in revenge for the rescue of a US captain in an operation that killed three pirates under his command, in comments to AFP on Monday.

'The American liars have killed our friends after they agreed to free the hostage without ransom, but I tell you that this matter will lead to retaliation and we will hunt down particularly American citizens travelling our waters,' Abdi Garad told AFP by phone from the pirate lair of Eyl.

'It is never the end of the world and we will intensify our attacks even reaching very far away from Somalia waters, and next time we get American citizens I wish they will expect no mercy from us.'

The threat to retaliate came hours after a daring nighttime assault that freed a 53-year-old American captain.

The Navy Seals late on Sunday rescued freighter Captain Richard Phillips, who had been held by pirates on a lifeboat that drifted in the Indian Ocean for five days.

'Every country will be treated the way it treats us,' said Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town.

'In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,' he told The Associated Press by telephone. 'We will retaliate for the killings of our men.'

He gave no details and it was not clear in what way the pirates could retaliate, though some fear they could take their revenge on the hundreds of other foreign nationals they hold on seized ships.

The rescue dealt a blow to pirates who regularly seize passing ships and hold them captive until multimillion dollar ransoms are paid. But it is unlikely to help quell the region's growing pirate threat, which has turned the Gulf of Aden and the waterways along Somalia's coast into some of the most dangerous shipping lanes on the planet.

Pirates currently hold more than a dozen foreign ships, most moored along the Horn of Africa nation's long coast, with about 230 foreign sailors from Russia to the Philippines.

The American rescue followed a similar operation Friday carried out by French navy commandos, who stormed a pirate-held sailboat, the Tanit, in a shootout at sea that killed two pirates and freed four French hostages. The French owner of the vessel was also killed in the assault. -- AFP, AP