For some reason this news has not appeared on the Iranian regime’s Press TV website (although a train wreck in Indiana with no loss of life is prominently featured):
A [US] Navy destroyer rescued 13 Iranian fishermen held hostage by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea only days after Tehran warned the United States to keep its ships out of the nearby Persian Gulf.
Sailors from the guided-missile destroyer Kidd boarded the Iranian dhow Thursday and detained 15 Somalis after one of the fishermen was able to reveal in a radio communication that his vessel’s crew was being held captive.
…..
Among those briefing journalists was Rear Adm. Craig S. Faller, who commands the John C. Stennis aircraft carrier strike group, which conducted the rescue and includes the Kidd. Faller later received a congratulatory telephone call from Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, the Pentagon said in a statement.“When we get a distress signal, we’re going to respond,” Pentagon spokesman George Little quoted Panetta as saying.
The Stennis is the ship that Gen. Ataollah Salehi, head of Iran’s army, advised Tuesday not to return to the Persian Gulf after the carrier had passed through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point that Iran has threatened to close in response to economic sanctions by the United States and its allies.
…..
The rescue operation began early Thursday after a helicopter from the Stennis, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, started tracking a small boat suspected of carrying pirates until the vessel pulled alongside the Iranian fishing dhow 175 miles southeast of Muscat, the capital of Oman.When the Kidd made radio contact with the dhow, the captain identified himself as Iranian and initially denied that any pirates were on board.
However, it became clear that he was “under duress” when the Iranian began speaking in Urdu so that the Somalis could not understand what he was saying, said the Kidd’s captain, Cmdr. Jennifer Ellinger. The Kidd had a linguist on board who could understand Urdu, a South Asian language.
The captain of the destroyer is a woman? That makes it even better.
After revealing that there were indeed pirates on board, the Iranian “pleaded with us to come over and board their vessel,” Ellinger said.
The U.S. sailors boarded the vessel without firing a shot and detained the Somalis, who were being held aboard the Stennis awaiting a decision on whether they would be prosecuted, Faller said.
The Iranian said the pirates had been using his vessel as a “mother ship,” a base from which to mount other raids.
After its crew received food and water, the dhow went on its way, crew members wearing smiles and Kidd baseball caps, Faller said.
I can’t help wondering how (or even if) official Iranian media will report this.
