A Navy destroyer in the Arabian Sea rescued 13 Iranian fishermen who had been held hostage by a band of pirates for weeks, the Pentagon announced late Friday.
Sailors from the USS Kidd, a guided-missile destroyer, boarded the Iranian ship and arrested 15 Somalis early Friday after one of the fishermen revealed over the radio that the vessel’s crew was being held captive.
The Iranian “pleaded with us to come over and board their vessel,” said Cmdr. Jennifer L. Ellinger, who added that the Navy ship had a linguist on board who could understand Urdu, a South Asian language.
The crew of the Kidd not only gave the “ecstatic” Iranians food, water and medical attention. They handed out souvenir Kidd baseball caps that the Iranians wore proudly, smiling and waving as they headed out to sea.
(READ the story in the LA Times)