U.S. sailors who battled Somalian pirates arrive home

The American sailors who clashed with Somalian pirates have returned to the United States.

The 19-member crew of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama arrived on a charter flight from Kenya to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland just before 1 a.m. on Thursday.

They were greeted by a crowd of reporters and cameras and a "welcome home" banner adorned with yellow ribbons that the ship's owners erected near the runway.

Last week, pirates took over the Alabama briefly before its captain surrendered himself in exchange for the crew's safety.

Capt. Richard Phillips was freed Sunday when U.S. Navy SEAL snipers killed three of his captors.

Phillips wasn't with the arriving crewmen, but was expected to return later.

Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the United States will try to seize the financial assets of pirates and help shippers boost their defences as part of a new strategy designed to fight sea piracy.

"These pirates are criminals. They are armed gangs on the sea. And those plotting attacks must be stopped," she told reporters at the State Department in Washington.

"We may be dealing with a 17th-century crime, but we need to bring 21st-century solutions to bear."

Pirates using ransoms to buy faster boats

While tracking and freezing pirates' assets won't be easy, Clinton said it may be key to thwarting the problem, as pirates are using ransom money to buy faster boats and more sophisticated communications equipment.

The U.S. will also ask an international counter-piracy task force to expand naval co-ordination against pirates, she added.

U.S. federal agencies are expected to meet Friday to discuss the issue. The administration of President Barack Obama plans to send an envoy to an April 23 conference on Somalian piracy in Brussels.

U.S. officials are also weighing more comprehensive diplomatic and military action in the Horn of Africa.

However, the long-term solution will be economic development and restoring the rule of law in Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since 1991, Clinton said.

The U.S. measures come in the wake of recent high-seas drama, including last week's attack on the Alabama.

In yet another incident Wednesday, French forces captured 11 Somalian pirates during an assault on a pirate "mother ship" off the coast of Kenya.

France's Defence Ministry said its forces launched an attack on the pirate vessel at daybreak about 900 kilometres east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa after trailing the ship overnight.

A surveillance helicopter spotted the ship on Tuesday, having earlier thwarted the pirates' planned attack on the Liberian cargo ship Safmarine Asia, the ministry said in a statement.

The 11 pirates are being held on the Nivôse, a French frigate taking part in a European Union mission to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden.

The French attack occurred just hours after Somalian pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons on an American ship carrying humanitarian aid, only to break off their assault before a U.S. frigate came to the ship's aid. 

There were no injuries aboard the American ship, the Liberty Sun, though the vessel sustained some damage in the pirate attack, according its owner, Liberty MaritimeCorp.

The pirates fled as the USS Bainbridge rushed to the scene.

Tom Urbik, a crew member onboard the Liberty Sun, was able to send off an email to his mother in Wheaton, Ill., as the attack happened.

"It says that we are under attack by pirates. We are being hit by rockets, also bullets," Katy Urbik said of the message.

Pirate group vows to 'slaughter' Americans

Somalian pirates, who have long been a scourge in waters off the Horn of Africa, vowed revenge this week after five pirates were shot dead recently in the separate U.S. and French rescue missions. One French hostage was also killed in one of the raids.

One of the pirates whose gang attacked the Liberty Sun said Wednesday his group was specifically targeting American ships and sailors.

"We will seek out the Americans and if we capture them we will slaughter them," said a 25-year-old pirate based in the Somali port of Harardhere who gave only his first name, Ismail.

"We will target their ships because we know their flags. Last night, an American-flagged ship escaped us by a whisker. We have showered them with rocket-propelled grenades," boasted Ismail, who did not take part in the attack.