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French navy storms yacht held by pirates

makapaaa

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>French navy storms yacht held by pirates
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Yacht owner Florent Lemacon was killed in an exchange of gunfire between Somali pirates and the French commandos who stormed the sailboat. A picture released by the French military on Friday shows pirates and hostages on the sailboat, the Tanit. -- PHOTO: WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK PHOTO: AFP
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Paris - Navy commandos stormed a French sailboat held by pirates off the Somali coast in an assault that left the yacht owner dead.
Four hostages, including a three-year-old child, were freed on Friday, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said on the same day.
Two pirates were killed and three others were taken prisoner. They are to be brought to France for criminal proceedings, joining 12 pirates already jailed and awaiting trial here.
It was the third time the French government has freed hostages from the hands of pirates but the first time a hostage has been killed.
In a break with French government policy, the authorities proposed paying a ransom during 48 hours of fruitless talks, but the pirates, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rejected the offer, Mr Morin said, without divulging a sum.
The French also offered the pirates a French naval officer to hold in exchange for a mother and child but that too was rejected.
A grim-faced Mr Morin said at a news conference: 'Negotiations were leading nowhere, and the boat was approaching the coast.'
He said French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the order to attack. It came at 3.30pm Paris time (9.30pm Singapore time), 20 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia.
The four remaining hostages, including the child, were being taken by the French authorities to Djibouti. The dead hostage was identified as Mr Florent Lemacon, the owner of the boat, the Tanit, and father of the family, Mr Morin said.
Mr Lemacon gave up his job as an engineer, and his wife Chloe, hers as a sales representative, to restore the 33-year-old Tanit before setting sail last year. 'We want to flee the consumer society and its routine,' Mr Lemacon told the newspaper Ouest France. The couple were in their late 20s.
Pirates in the Gulf of Aden had seized the Tanit two Saturdays ago.
French officials had been in contact with the pirates since Wednesday. When negotiations stalled on Thursday, the French 'immobilised' the Tanit by shooting down its sails - thus opening a new phase of talks, Mr Morin said.
By Friday, 'threats were more precise, with the pirates refusing proposals and the Tanit moving towards the coast. An operation to free the hostages was decided', the president's office said. Mr Lemacon was killed in an exchange of gunfire as he tried to duck down the hatch, Mr Morin said.
The boat, a 14.5m sailboat with a single mast, was heading for the coast of Kenya when it was attacked. The Lemacons had left France in July last year with their son Colin, then two years old, on board the boat and picked up another couple along the way.
Mr Morin yesterday promised an investigation into the death of the hostage, acknowledging that it could have been a French bullet that killed him during the rescue.
'There will be a judicial inquiry, therefore there will be an autopsy. We cannot exclude that during the exchange of fire between the pirates and our commandos, the shot (that killed Lemacon) was French,' Mr Morin said on Europe-1 Radio.
The French rescue operation did not appear to be in any proximity to another stand-off involving an American cargo ship captain held hostage by four Somali pirates.
Yesterday, another US-owned, Italian-flagged tugboat was reported hijacked in the Gulf of Aden by another gang of pirates.
According to Nato alliance officials on board a warship in the region, there are 10 Italian citizens among the boat's 16-member crew. AP, Reuters
 

makapaaa

Alfrescian (Inf)
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Pirates warn against rescuing US hostage
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US Captain Richard Phillips is being held by Somali pirates in a lifeboat.
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MOGADISHU - Somali pirates holding a US captain hostage warned yesterday 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.
The pirates have threatened to kill Captain Richard Phillips, 53, if the US attacks them, said a Somali who has been in contact with the pirates.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>'He's captain courageous'
Underhill (Vermont) - At sea he is intense and resolute, so when Captain Richard Phillips tried to escape from his pirate captors by leaping off their slow-moving lifeboat, some of his closest friends did not blink.

As Capt Phillips spent the fourth day as the lone hostage of Somali pirates who attacked his cargo ship last Wednesday off the Horn of Africa, friends and relatives spoke of the sailor with passion.


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The four pirates adrift in the lifeboat holding the captain of a cargo ship they tried to seize on Wednesday have demanded US$2 million (S$3 million) for his release, and a guarantee of their own safety.
The drama continued even as French commandoes stormed a yacht held by another gang of pirates in a raid that left one hostage and two gunmen dead.
With three United States warships in the waters near the Horn of Africa nation, elders and relatives of the pirates holding Capt Phillips are planning a mediation mission to try to avoid bloodshed, a regional maritime group said.
'They are just looking to arrange safe passage for the pirates, no ransom,' group coordinator Andrew Mwangura said.
The pirates also tried to link up with others holding Russian, German, Filipino and other hostages, and get Capt Phillips to the shores of the notoriously lawless Somalia. That would give them more leverage and a stronger negotiating position, said the Somali who asked not to be named. Anchoring near shore also means they could get to land quickly if attacked.
US Navy forces have been pouring into the region amid the standoff over the American, who was the captain of a Danish-operated Maersk Alabama ship carrying international aid. Among them is USS Bainbridge, which has launched monitoring drones and kept radio contact with the pirates even as the Federal Bureau of Investigation provided expertise for a peaceful outcome to the crisis.
Last Friday, Capt Phillips jumped into the water and tried to swim towards USS Bainbridge but was recaptured.
US rules of engagement prevent the Americans from using their vastly superior fighting power to engage the pirates if there is any danger to civilians. 'What continues to be our No.1 priority is the safe and healthy return of the captain,' said Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Major Stewart Upton.
Pirate commander Abdi Garad warned that any rescue plans by the Americans would be thwarted. '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,' he said.
The French mission to rescue a seized a sailboat carrying a couple, their three-year-old son and two friends off the Somali coast had ended in disaster with one hostage getting killed.
Yesterday, US warships stopped other Somali pirates from sending reinforcements to the lifeboat where Capt Phillips is on.
Pirates on a German ship with 24 foreign hostages returned to the Somali coast after failing to locate the scene of the stand-off involving Capt Phillips.
Somalia's Islamist insurgent movement al Shabaab, which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups, lambasted the international naval patrols and said no money should be paid.
'You are the ones who are the pirates. Leave our waters. You will be defeated, whatever you can do. And you will regret anything you pay as a ransom,' a spokesman told reporters.
Al Shabaab has denied any links with the pirates. AFP, Reuters, AP
 
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