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Navy Captures Pirates off Somalian coast

Piracy has become epidemic in the unpatrolled waters off the coast of lawless Somalia, where at least 23 hijackings and attempted seizures have been reported since mid-March of 2005. Somalia has been without a central government since 1991, when rival warlords ousted Mohamed Siad Barre. In November, the Somali government signed a two-year deal worth $50 million with a U.S. maritime security firm in a bid to end the plague of piracy.

And so it came as little surprise when the U.S. Navy announced that American vessels pursued a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean off Somalia`s coast this weekend, fired warning shots, and managed to capture its crew on Saturday. The crewmembers were seized and sailors who boarded the vessel discovered small-arms weapons on board.

According to reports, the guided missile destroyer "Winston S. Churchill" and other U.S. naval forces located the pirate ship after receiving a report of an attempted but failed act of piracy, and that the ship failed to respond to orders to stop. The Pentagon did not say how many suspects were held in the incident.