Snipers end hostage drama

With three shots, U.S. Navy sharpshooters drew a line against future ransom payments to pirates, killing three and rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips on Sunday unharmed.

It was an Easter miracle for the captain's family and the crew of his ship, and a successful test of mettle for the young Obama administration.

President Obama had said nothing publicly during the five-day standoff that began Wednesday, when four pirates tried to hijack the Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food for African refugees.

With Capt. Phillips safe and unharmed, White House aides offered details of Mr. Obama's actions during the crisis, which included at least 30 meetings, briefings and updates, during which the president issued two shoot-to-kill authorization orders.

“Our authority came directly from the president,” said Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

Three hidden snipers on the USS Bainbridge had their scopes trained on the covered lifeboat, where Capt. Phillips had been held hostage since Wednesday, when pirates boarded the U.S.-flagged ship.

Crew members said Sunday that the Somali pirates never had control of the ship before they fled with Capt. Phillips as a hostage.

The lifeboat was out of gas and being towed by the Bainbridge on Sunday as hostage negotiations proceeded. One pirate had left the lifeboat, apparently to negotiate a ransom payment.

When the other three pirates briefly showed themselves above the lifeboat's deck, with one pointing an assault rifle at Capt. Phillips, the snipers opened fire and hit their mark.

“The captain's life was in immediate danger, and that is the situation in which our sailors acted,” Adm. Gortney told reporters at the Pentagon via satellite from Bahrain.

“The intent the entire time was a slow, deliberate process to let the negotiation process work itself out to a nonviolent end, and unfortunately that did not occur,” he said.

Capt. Phillips, 53, was taken aboard the Norfolk-based Bainbridge and then flown to the assault ship USS Boxer.

“He contacted his family, received a routine medical evaluation and is resting comfortably,” the Navy said.

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