in other words, they got a tip that the pirates were operating, and they pursued them. in the course of pursuing the pirates, that caused them to open fire. any reports of injuries, any damage to the uss nicholas in the course of this? no, sir. there s no known evidence of damage, and certainly no injuries sustained by either u.s. sailors or any suspected pirates. real quickly, lieutenant, how do they get rid of the pirate ship? just blow it up to sink it? is that what they did? no, sir. after our boarding team went on the and they took custody of the suspected pirates they determined it was a hazard to navigation and they sunk it. there was a suspected mother pirate ship nearby they pursued after that. lieutenant patrick fouty, thank you for your help on this story. we appreciate it. as we continue to get more information on the battle between the u.s. navy and pirates in the indian ocean, we will bring that information to you. coming up, new documents show the vatican
and some pirates who apparently brazenly opened fire on the uss nicholas pictured here. joining us with more information on this is lieutenant patrick fouty, a spokesman for the u.s. naval forces africa. he joins us on the phone from italy. what do you know about this incident and how long it lasted and how heavy the gunfire was? good morning. what i can tell you right away is that uss nicholas was given information by our partners over at the counterpiracy off so mail ya. they made an intercept towards these suspected pirates early, early in the morning. once they were in visual contact, they received small arms fire at which point they followed the rules of engagement and fired back. then they continued to pursue one of the skiffs that was firing at them, which stopped on its own. then they surrendered. afterwards we took custody of them.