Cape Town — BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon sources are telling CNN and news agencies that crewmembers have regained control of the ship and that one pirate is in custody.
An American-operated ship crewed by 20 United States nationals and carrying 400 containers of food aid was attacked by pirates and presumed hijacked early Wednesday, the shipping line which owns the vessel said.
The Maersk company said in a news release that the Maersk Alabama, a 17,525-tonne container vessel, was attacked about 500 kilometers off the Somali coast at 5am UTC/GMT (1am Eastern U.S. time).
The ship's home port was Norfolk, Virginia, and it was owned and operated by by Maersk Line, Limited in the United States.
"The vessel is deployed in Maersk Line's East Africa service network," the company said, "and was enroute to Mombasa... Our initial concern is to ensure proper support of the crew and assistance to their families."
In a separate report, the shipping news website, Fairplay, reported unnamed intelligence analysts as saying that military planners in Washington DC were studying the possibility of using U.S. Navy SEAL commandoes to rescue the ship.
Pentagon officials were said by the analysts to be "red-faced with anger" at the audacity of the pirates. One quoted a U.S. admiral as saying: ""This is an attack on sovereign interests of the United States," one analyst quoted a furious admiral as saying."
The Fairplay report was carried on / the website of the Maritime Security Centre, the European Union's anti-piracy agency.
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The Alabama is the sixth ship to be hijacked in recent days, after a new upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia during March.
Just two days ago, there were two hijackings and one attempt, reports the shipping industry's International Maritime Bureau.
On April 6, armed pirates chased and boarded a fishing trawler about 630 nautical miles south-east of Mogadishu, the bureau said. The trawler was then used in other hijack attempts. On the same day pirates seized a bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden.
Also on April 6, a bulk carrier detected on radar speed boats approaching from about 12 nautical miles. As the boats reached the carrier, "all crew mustered, activated fire hoses, switched on all lights, sent distress signal, made evasive manoeuvres and succeeded in preventing the boarding," the bureau reported.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month that piracy would end only when order was restored in Somalia.
