U.S. rescues captain from pirates

By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - U.S. Navy special forces freed an American ship's captain by killing three Somali pirates who held him hostage in a lifeboat, ending a five-day standoff but risking more violent confrontations off the waters of east Africa.

The life of cargo ship captain Richard Phillips was in danger when Navy snipers aboard a U.S. destroyer shot his Somali captors on Sunday, freeing him unharmed and killing three of four pirates who had held him after trying to seize his vessel, the Navy said. The fourth pirate was in custody.

A Navy commander made a split-second decision to fire on the pirates because he believed that Phillips, who tried to escape on Friday, faced imminent danger amid tense hostage talks with his captors and deteriorating sea conditions.

"They were pointing the AK-47s at the captain," Vice Admiral William Gortney, head of the U.S. Naval Central Command, said in a Pentagon briefing from Bahrain.

"The on-scene commander took it as the captain was in imminent danger and then made that decision (to kill the pirates) and he had the authorities to make that decision and he had seconds to make that decision."

President Barack Obama granted the Pentagon's request for standing authority to use appropriate force to save the life of the captain, Gortney said.

The U.S. Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain said the rescue took place at 12:19 p.m. EDT (4:19 p.m. British time) and the lifeboat had drifted to about 20 miles (32 km) from lawless Somalia's coast.

Phillips, captain of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama container ship, contacted his family after the rescue, received a routine medical evaluation, and was resting comfortably aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer.