Snipers may have raised level of violence from pirates
US Navy Seals shot and killed three of the four pirates holding hostage Richard Phillips, the US captain of the Maersk Alabama, to rescue him in a move that may prompt more violence from Somali pirates.
A fourth pirate, aged 16, was arrested having earlier left their 15ft motorised lifeboat for medical attention and surrendered to the US Navy.
Snipers on the USS Bainbridge shot the pirates in the lifeboat in which they were holding Phillips.
Reuters reported that pirates were talking of revenge: "The French and the Americans will regret starting this killing. We do not kill, but take only ransom. We shall do something to anyone we see as French or American from now," Hussein, a pirate, told Reuters by satellite phone.
"We shall revenge," said another pirate.
"The pirates will know from now that anything can happen. The French are doing this, the Americans are doing it. Things will be more violent from now on," said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program. "This is a big wake-up to the pirates. It raises the stakes."
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