Pirates Seize 4 More Ships, 60 Crew Members

Somali pirates captured four ships and took more than 60 crew members hostage in a brazen hijacking spree, while the American captain freed from their grip planned to reunite with his crew and fly home Wednesday to the United States.

AP USS Bainbridge

Pirates have vowed revenge for the deaths of three colleagues at the hands of U.S. snipers rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips, as well as for two others slain by French forces in a separate rescue last week.

"Our latest hijackings were meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land," Omar Dahir Idle, a pirate based in the coastal town of Harardhere, told The Associated Press by telephone. "The recent American operation, French navy attack on our colleagues or any other operation mean nothing to us."

The top U.S. military officer said Tuesday he takes such comments seriously.

But Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "we're very well prepared to deal with anything like that."

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Phillips, who offered himself up as a hostage to save the crew of the Maersk Alabama, was rescued Sunday when U.S. Navy SEALs shot three pirates dead after a five-day standoff.

The commander of the USS Bainbridge, the American destroyer from which the SEALs took their shots at the pirates, said the captain's life was repeatedly threatened. Cmdr. Frank Castellano of the destroyer USS Bainbridge told The Associated Press the pirates repeatedly stated "it was their intention to kill him."

Special forces on the warship, believing Capt. Richard Phillips' life was in immediate danger, ended the standoff Sunday with three well placed shots, killing the pirates.

Castellano did not give further details about where Phillips is now. The captain and his 19-man crew will reunite in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Wednesday and fly from there to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on a chartered flight, according to the shipping company Maersk. They will be reunited with loved ones at Andrews in a private reception area.

Despite Mullen's confident statement and President Barack Obama's warning of further U.S. action, Somali pirates captured two more nautical trophies Tuesday to match the two ships they seized a day or two earlier.

The latest seizures were the Lebanese-owned cargo ship MV Sea Horse, the Greek-managed bulk carrier MV Irene E.M. and two Egyptian fishing boats. Maritime officials said the Irene carried 21 to 23 Filipino crew and the International Maritime Bureau reported 36 fishermen, all believed to be Egyptian, on the two boats.

It was not known exactly how many crew the Sea Horse had, but a ship that size would probably need at least a dozen sailors.

NATO spokeswoman Shona Lowe said pirates in three or four speedboats captured the Sea Horse off Somalia's eastern coast on Tuesday—an attack that came only hours after the Irene was seized in a rare overnight raid in the nearby Gulf of Aden.

The two Egyptian fishing boats were hijacked in the gulf off Somalia's northern coast but it was not clear if those attacks came Monday or Sunday.

CONTINUED : MORE THAN 300 CREWMEN IN PIRATES' HANDS

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