AFR: Somali pirates 'untrained' teenagers
14 Apr 2009 3:28 AM
WASHINGTON, April 13 AFP - The Somali pirates who kidnapped Captain Richard Phillips were heavily armed but inexperienced youths, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates says.
He said the hijackers were aged 17-19.
The pirates, three of whom were killed by US Navy snipers on Sunday, were "untrained teenagers with heavy weapons", Gates told a group of 30 students and faculty members at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia, on Monday.
