Somali pirates on Saturday warned the U.S. warships from rescuing an American captain held hostage as it may lead to "disaster."
The warning followed the fatal French navy commandos' raid on a separate yacht held by different group of pirates, leaving one hostage dead.
Captain Richard Phillips is being held captive by four pirates on a lifeboat and they are preparing to transfer him to a largers ship off Somalia's eastern waters.
Pirates have reportedly asked for $2 million in ransom from the U.S. government to free Phillips.
"There are not any developments still on the standoff with the American officials," AFP quoted pirate commander Abdi Garad as saying from the northern Somali pirate lair of Eyl.
"We are planning to transfer the hostage on to one of the ships our friends are holding around Garacad area so that we can wait," he added, referring to an area along Somalia's coast, though he did not specify which ship.
Phillips is the captain of the Maersk Alabama container ship, which was hijacked 550 kilometers (around 311 miles) off the Somalia coastline on April 8, according to the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
The vessel, carrying a crew of 20 Americans along with food aid for Somalia and Uganda, is the second container ship reported hijacked off Somalia in less than a week. A German-flagged and owned boxship was captured on April 5, the international agency said.
"This recent surge of activity is worrying for a number of reasons, principally because attacks have taken place many hundreds of miles off the country's coastline," IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The problem of Somali piracy has now spilled over to neighbouring countries, threatening trade routes into their ports. These recent attacks have shown that the pirate gangs are able to successfully operate far out to sea using motherships."
Source: AHN
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