Pirates hijack 4 Americans; US mulls responses

Nairobi, Kenya  - The U.S. government on Saturday said it was possible to assess the reactions after the Somali pirates hijacked a yacht with four Americans on board in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia.

Pirates hijacked the yacht Quest on Friday, two days after a Somali pirate sentenced to 33 years in prison by a New York court for the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama. That case ended in a spectacular Navy rescue when two snipers who pirate captain, Richard Phillips slain.

The Quest is the home of Jean and Adam Scott, a couple who already sail around the world since December 2004, according to a website to keep Adams.

A U.S. military spokesman at Central Command in Florida said: "We are aware of the situation and we continue to follow."

Matt Goshko, a spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, Somalia, which monitors said preliminary reports indicate four U.S. citizens aboard the Quest.

"All relevant U.S. agencies are monitoring the situation in the further information to develop options and assess possible solutions," said Goshko.

Pirate attacks have increased off the coast of East Africa in recent years, despite an international fleet of warships devoted to protect ships and stopping the pirate attacks.

Multimillion-dollar ransom to increase trade, and prices for the release of a ship and hostages have risen sharply. A ransom last year was reported at $ 9.5 million. Pirates currently have 30 ships and more than 660 hostages, not counting the attack against the Quest.

After the Maersk Alabama was hijacked in April 2009, Navy snipers on the Fantail of USS Bainbridge fired on pirates holding Phillips, the captain, killing two of them. The only pirate U.S. bailout survive was Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the pirate, who was sentenced to 33 years in prison this week.

The best known case of Westerners held hostage in Somalia, was that of Paul and Rachel Chandler, a British couple held for 388 days. The two, who were captured while sailing in their private yacht, was released in November.

U.S. officials will likely try to Adams' hunting prevents Somalia, where their options to save the Americans increasingly limited.

The website of Adams chronicles the couple's travels in the past seven years, El Salvador and Panama in 2005 to Fiji in 2007 and Singapore and Cambodia last year. She most recently moved from Thailand to Sri Lanka and India. Their website said they were on their way to Oman when they were taken. Djibouti - the tiny East African country north of Somalia - was next on their list. The couple used a satellite tracking system showed it docked in Mumbai, India on February 1.

"Djibouti is a major fuel stop. I have no idea what will happen in these ports, but maybe we'll do some local touring," the couple's Web site says.

The couple runs a Bible ministry, according to their website, and distributing Bibles to schools and churches in remote villages in areas including the Fiji Islands, Alaska, New Zealand, Central America and French Polynesia.

They are members of the Marina del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, California, according to the website.

The prison sentence given to Muse this week could affect the Quest and the hijacking of four Americans. Pirates have turned increasingly violent in their attacks and naval officials say pirates have begun systematically torturing hostages and using them as human shields.

Earlier this week a Somali pirate told a reporter from the Associated Press in Somalia that the pirates would target Americans in retaliation for the conviction. The pirate, who identified himself by the name Hassan, said the Americans would suffer "regrettable consequences."

Pirates have recently hostages strapped to his head and dragged them into the sea, locked them in freezers, beaten them and used plastic ties around their genitals, the commander of the European Union's anti-piracy force, Major General Buster Howes told AP this month .