SEOUL, South Korea — At dawn Friday, South Korean commandos steered their boat to a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea. Under covering fire from a destroyer and a Lynx helicopter, they scrambled up a ladder onto the ship, where Somali pirates were armed with assault rifles and anti-tank missiles.
Five hours after the risky rescue began, it was over.
All 21 hostages were freed from the gunfire-scarred freighter. Eight pirates were killed and five were captured in what President Lee Myung-Bak called a “perfect operation.”
It was a remarkable ending to the daring and rare raid, handing South Korea a stunning success in the battle against pirates who have long tormented shipping in the waters off the Horn of Africa.
The lone casualty among the crew was the captain, identified as Seok Bae-Gyun, 58, who was shot in the stomach by a pirate. He was taken by a U.S. helicopter to a nearby country for treatment, but the wound was not life-threatening.
The successful raid also was a triumph for South Korea’s president and military. Both came under harsh criticism at home for being too slow and weak in the response to a North Korean attack in November on a South Korean island near disputed waters that killed two marines and two civilians.
Friday’s operation came a week after the Somali attackers seized the Samho Jewelry, a 11,500-ton chemical carrier sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka.
There are now 29 vessels and 703 hostages being held by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
Other hostage situations on the seas
April 2009: U.S. Navy snipers shot three pirates who were holding an American captain hostage in a lifeboat after they had abandoned a larger ship, the Maersk Alabama.
April 2009: A French rescue operation that came two days after a sailboat was seized left one hostage dead, along with two of the pirates. Four French citizens were freed in the effort, which came after the pirates threatened to kill their captives.
November: Somali pirates freed the South Korean supertanker Samho Dream and its 24-member crew after seven months of captivity. A company official said a ransom was paid; local media reported it as about $9 million.
