Captain free after three pirates die in navy raid

AN American ship’s captain was freed unharmed yesterday in a US Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior US intelligence official said.

The fourth pirate was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.

Capt Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was safely transported to a navy warship nearby.