Yes, in the end we took them out and saved the hostage. That is a great victory and I am glad the captain is okay.
This standoff took what, 3-4 days? We didn't know what to do in this situation. The pirates were stuck in a lifeboat without fuel. If they had been able to make it to another vessel they would have been on shore by now making ridiculous demands. We were lucky and given those circumstances our lack of action did not cost us.
The details of the rescue are still unclear. However, I heard from one source (not all that reliable so this is only hearsay at the moment) that the captain jumped overboard yet again to try to swim away and that's when the Sailors opened fire on the pirates. If so, then this was not a planned rescue like it is being made out to be. I haven't read anything about the specifics to the rescue. I'm leaning towards believing this story is false, though.
Either way, this international attention will surely only attract more pirates to come out and do more daring stunts. We should have tried to stifle this as soon as possible. I am still happy that everything ended up okay and hopefully if something like this happens again we will be more prepared to react.
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