Hostage Ship Capt. Phillips' Daring Escape Attempt

Richard Phillips, the American captain held hostage by four Somali pirates made a desperate escape attempt Friday. He tried to swim to freedom but was recaptured after they fired shots, and officials said other pirates who were sailing nearby rushed to the scene in hijacked ships with other captives aboard to help their fellows.

A Somali facilitator in contact with a pirate leader said the captors are ready to kill the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, if attacked. According to him they want a ransom for the hostage.

France's navy freed a sailboat seized last week by Somali pirate but one of the hostages was killed along with two of the bandits. Three pirates were taken into custody, French Officials said. It was not made clear where the operation occurred but it did not seem to be near the standoff involving the U.S. captain.

The U.S. was reinforcing its position by dispatching other warships to the site, off the Horn of Africa, where a U.S. destroyer shadowed the drifting lifeboat carrying Capt. Phillips. He was taken hostage when the pirate failed to hijack the cargo ship Maersk Alabama on Wednesday.

Their strategy was to link up with their colleagues, who are holding German, Russian, Filipino and other hostages, and get Captain to lawless Somalia, where they could hide the hostage and make it difficult to launch a rescue, our Somali reporter said. That would give the pirates better posture and a stronger negotiating position to go into ransom discussion. Anchoring near shore also means they could escape to land quickly if attacked.

A Somali, who were involve in ransom negotiation last year with pirates after they seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks, spoke in anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said he has talked with one of the pirate leaders who helped coordinate the failed effort to seize the Alabama.

The man said the pirate leader had been directly in contact with the lifeboat via a satellite phone but lost contact after Capt. Phillips' captors threw the phone into the ocean, fearing the Americans were somehow using the equipment to give instructions to the captain. They acted after Phillips' failure to escape.

Phillips jumped off the lifeboat around midnight local time and began swimming, according to Defense Department officials

The pirates then fired an automatic weapon, the officials said, although it was not clear if the shots were fired at Phillips or into the air, and he returned to the lifeboat.

In fact, the USS Bainbridge, which is several hundred yards away, has rescue helicopters and lifeboats but is keeping its distance, in part to stay out of the pirates' range of fire.

The sailors on board were able to see Phillips moving around and talking after his return to the lifeboat, and the Defense Department officials think he is unharmed.

Negotiations had been going on between the pirates and the captain of the Bainbridge, who was getting direction from FBI hostage negotiators, the officials reported.

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said other U.S. warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles off Somalia's Indian Ocean coast.

He said: "We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days".

President Barack Obama, who is getting regular updates on the standoff, refused to answer questions about it Friday for a second straight day.

A resident of the pirate stronghold in Eyl, Somalia Mohamed Samaw, said four foreign vessels held by pirates are moving toward the lifeboat. A total of 54 hostages are on two of the ships — citizens of Russia, Germany, China, Ukraine, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

According to a Nairobi-based diplomat, who spoke on condition on anonymity for being not authorized to talk to the media "the pirates have summoned assistance — skiffs and mother ships are heading towards the area from the coast,"

Samaw said two ships left Eyl on Wednesday. A third sailed from Haradere, another pirate base in Somalia, and the fourth was a Taiwanese fishing vessel seized Monday that was already only 30 miles from the lifeboat.

He said those ships include the Hansa Stavanger a German cargo ship seized earlier this month. Its crew of 24 is made up of three Russians, five Germans, two Filipinos, two Ukrainians and 12 from Tuvalu.

A man identified as a pirate by three different residents of Haradhere also said the captured German ship had been sent there.

He added "They had asked us for reinforcement, and we have already sent a good number of well-equipped colleagues, who were holding a German cargo ship". He required only that his first name, Badow, be used to protect him from reprisals.

"We are not intending to harm the captain. So that we hope our colleagues would not be harmed as long as they hold him" Badow said. "All we need is a safe route to escape with the captain, and later negotiate a ransom."