Pirates, Navy | featured news

Suspected Somali pirates fired on a U.S. Navy warship off East Africa early Thursday in what appeared to be a ransom-seeking attack on an American guided missile frigate, officials said.

Dutch naval forces captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen after tracking the pirates to their "mother ship" in the western Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a NATO maritime spokesman said.

Somali pirates on Monday vowed to retaliate for the deaths of three colleagues who were shot dead by U.S. Navy snipers hours before in a daring nighttime assault that freed a 53-year-old American captain.

The American captain of a cargo ship held hostage by pirates on a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia was rescued today by Navy SEALs. "We saw the captain was in imminent danger," a U.S. official said. The SEALs shot and killed three of his four captors, the official said. Capt.

The U.S. Navy and Russian warships seized 26 pirates this week in the seas off the coast of Somalia, even as attacks by pirates increase with the return of good weather.