News of the operation came after a US captain made an unsuccessful overnight bid to escape from another seized vessel off Somalia.

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This operation was several weeks in the making, and the small village of Zargaran, in the southeastern province of Zabul, has been under surveillance much longer, says a Special Forces captain who is the commander of the joint operation.

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The captain leads a cadre of senior naval officers in the operation of the ship.

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Captain Michael Vaughan will definitely miss the tour, however, after having a knee operation for the fourth time in his career.

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At least three of the SEALs had participated in the sniper operation off the coast of Somalia, in April, 2009, that freed Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, and left three pirates dead.

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Captain Francis Umtope(ph), a United Nations peacekeeper from Ghana who assisted in the recovery operation, said he saw no signs of Hezbollah among the dead here.

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