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FBI called in for hostage standoff with pirates
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-10 00:27

NAIROBI, Kenya -- FBI hostage negotiators joined US Navy efforts Thursday to free an American cargo ship captain held captive on a lifeboat by Somali pirates. A US destroyer and a spy plane kept close watch in the high-seas standoff near the Horn of Africa.

The pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips hostage Wednesday after they hijacked the US-flagged Maersk Alabama, but the cargo ship's crew overpowered them and at least four then fled to a covered lifeboat. It was the first such attack on American sailors in about 200 years.

FBI called in for hostage standoff with pirates
Maersk line Ltd, CEO, John Reinhart, seen here addressing the press on April 08, 2009, in Norfolk, Virginia, said the captain of a US aid ship taken hostage after his vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates is alive and well. [Agencies]

Kevin Speers, a spokesman for the Maersk shipping company, said the pirates have made no demands yet to the company. He said the safe return of the captain is now its top priority.

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The Maersk Alabama is again under way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, its original destination, with 18 armed guards, according to Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy whose son, Shane Murphy, is second in command. A person reached by The Associated Press by phone on the bridge of the vessel confirmed that "We're moving."

A US official, speaking on grounds of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, also said a military team of armed guards was aboard the Maersk Alabama.

Joseph Murphy said he was told about the development by company officials who are briefing families and estimates it will arrive in Kenya on Saturday. The Maersk Alabama, loaded with relief aid, had been en route to Mombasa when it was attacked about 380 miles east of the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Earlier Thursday, the USS Bainbridge had arrived near the Maersk Alabama and the lifeboat with the pirates, Speers said, adding that the lifeboat holding the pirates and the captain was out of fuel.

"The boat is dead in the water," he told AP Radio. "It's floating near the Alabama. It's my understanding that it's floating freely."

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