Pirates, Somali Pirates | featured news

Somali pirates who have been holding a hijacked ship for nearly two years killed a Syrian hostage crew member and wounded another to protest delayed ransom payment, a pirate leader said....

U.S. military forces flew in helicopters under the cover of darkness on a raid into Somalia early Wednesday and freed an American and a Dane held hostage since October, Western officials said.

Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years.

A Somali man who admitted his role in an attack on a U.S. Navy ship off the coast of Africa was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison under an agreement that could return him to court to testify against five countrymen accused in the attack.

It is a happy ending to a very long and torturous saga. The British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler are enjoying their hard-won freedom at the residence Monday of the U.K. High Commissioner (or Ambassador) in Nairobi, Kenya.

A Panamanian tanker was seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia Saturday morning, according to the European Union Naval Force Somalia, which escorts ships traveling near the Somali coast.

Somali pirates have hijacked a South Korean-operated fishing boat with 43 sailors, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Two South Korean, two Chinese and 39 Kenyans were aboard the 241-ton Kenya-registered trawler when it was attacked Oct. 9 in the waters off Kenya's Lamu Island, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russian special forces rappelled onto a disabled oil tanker taken over by Somali pirates and freed 23 Russian sailors early Thursday, the commander of the EU Naval Force said. Ten pirates were arrested and one was killed....

Eleven suspected pirates have arrived in the United States to face criminal prosecution for alleged attacks on U.S. Navy ships near Somalia, a federal government source said Friday.

The U.S. Navy is holding six suspected pirates after a sea battle off the Horn of Africa.