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Arlington, Va. -- Captain Richard Phillips is now safe and healthy aboard the USS Boxer after Navy Seals launched a rescue attempt that ended when snipers killed three pirates in three shots, all direct hits to the head.
Vice Admiral William Gortney, Commander of Navy's 5th Fleet, told journalists at the Pentagon Sunday evening a decision was made to take the shots after the pirates were spotted pointing an AK-47 into the back of Captain Phillips.
As soon as the shots were fired, Navy Seals "scurried down" a tow line attached to the lifeboat, and were the first to get to Phillips. They surveyed the scene and found three dead pirates. Phillips was alive, although tied up.
The fourth pirate, who is now in U.S. custody, left the lifeboat hours earlier with the understanding he would negotiate from on board the USS Bainbridge, the massive Navy destroyer that shadowed the lifeboat for several days.
It soon became clear the younger pirate was simply turning himself in and had no intention of going back to lifeboat, according to defense officials.
Shortly after the Seals reached Captain Phillips, a Navy RIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) approached the life boat and safely escorted Phillips back to the Bainbridge. He has since undergone a medical exam and had the chance to take a shower.
According to Admiral Gortney he's healthy and unharmed.
The scene got "tenuous" according to one official, shortly after the three pirates agreed to let the Bainbridge tow their boat. The sea conditions were worsening and the lifeboat was "floundering" before pirates acknowledged that by establishing a tow, it would be a smoother ride.
But sometime soon after the boats were hooked together, shots were fired from the lifeboat and the pirates were seen holding a gun to Captain Phillips back. Acting on a standing order from President Obama to move in when Phillips was in "imminent danger" snipers were ordered to fire.
They established clear head shots on all three pirates. One of the pirates was visible through the front window, and the other two were revealing their heads through the top hatch, presumably to get fresh air. It would be their last breath.
It was an extremely happy ending to a story that doesn't often end well. Just last week the French lost one hostage after their Navy raided a hijacked sailing yacht.
Admiral Gortney left with a warning that today's outcome could lead to more violence in future hijackings, perhaps in the form of retaliation for losing three of their own.
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(CNN) -- Somalia's transitional government shut down the independent Shabelle Radio network Monday, amid a new push by government troops and their Ethiopian allies to put down an insurgency, network managers reported.
Angry demonstrators march through Mogadishu, Somalia, on Friday to denounce the Ethiopian presence.
Heavily armed troops entered the broadcaster's headquarters in Mogadishu about 11:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) and forced it off the air, ordering journalists out the building, Shabelle Radio reported on it Web site. Soldiers briefly held the news director and acting manager, then released them.
"No reason has been said to the closure of Shabelle, but they claimed that is an order from senior government officials," the station reported.
The closure marks the eighth time Somali authorities shut down Shabelle, according to the network. It comes days after intense fighting between insurgents and the Ethiopian forces that drove them out of the war-torn capital last year.
About 100,000 people have fled Mogadishu since late October, joining more than 700,000 others displaced around the country, U.N. relief agencies estimate.
Residents, witnesses and journalists accuse Ethiopian and Somali troops of firing indiscriminately in revenge for attacks last week that left several troops dead. An Ethiopian soldier's body was dragged through the dusty streets of one neighborhood.
Between 60 and 80 people, many of them civilians, were killed in clashes between soldiers and insurgents last week. The troops seized control of Mogadishu's largest public market on Saturday.
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in December 2006 to drive out the Islamic Courts Union from Mogadishu and restore the U.N.-backed transitional government after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. In response, the Islamist extremists launched an insurgency against the Somali government and Ethiopian troops, who have made only "limited progress" against them, according to a U.N. report last week.
After the invasion, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi promised his troops would remain in Somalia only a few weeks, and he dismissed fears his army would become bogged down in a guerrilla war. But an African Union peacekeeping mission has never been fully manned, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the Security Council last week that an Ethiopian withdrawal would be unlikely until conditions improve.
"Given the complex security situation in Somalia, it may be advisable to look at additional security options, including the deployment of a robust multinational force or coalition of the willing," the secretary-general's office wrote in a Security Council report. A small force "could be built to a level that would enable Ethiopian forces to commence a partial, then complete withdrawal from the country," he reported.
The United States has accused the ICU of harboring suspected al Qaeda figures, including three men wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and raised no objections to the invasion. Washington has long been concerned that Somalia could turn into a safe haven for terrorists, but ICU leaders deny harboring al Qaeda suspects
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