The teenage suspect, identified as Abduhl Wal-i-Musi, surrendered to the US Navy hours before its snipers shot dead his three comrades to free Mr Phillips.

Britain, the EU and the US have signed agreements for Kenya to try alleged pirates picked up as part of anti-pirate patrols off Somalia’s coastline.

But most of those handed over have not been involved in direct raids on American ships.

A US official told CBS News that the FBI in New York has a history of handling cases involving Africans suspected of attacks against Americans, including the al-Qaeda embassy bombings in 1998.

Mr Wal-i-Musi handed himself in on Sunday, before the US Navy operation to rescue Mr Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama.

The 17,500-tonne container ship and its 20 American crew members were involved in a botched hijack ten days ago.

Mr Phillips, 53, left the Kenyan port of Mombasa before dawn on Friday on board a Maersk executive jet heading home to the US.

His crew mates arrived in the US late on Wednesday night and described how they fought off the pirates, who were forced to flee in the Maersk Alabama’s lifeboat with the captain as a hostage.

One, Zahid Reza, told how he and the chief engineer overpowered one pirate, stabbed him with an ice pick and tied him up in the engine room.

Mr Reza, a slight man, said the chief engineer jumped the teenage pirate, and he piled on to help, stabbing the pirate in the hand with an icepick.

“I saw the pirate lying on the floor and chief engineer on his back with the knife. He was having a hard time to control him.

I jumped over the pirate and stabbed him and the chief engineer also stabbed him in the back.”

Mr Reza said that he and the chief engineer then tied the pirate’s hands and legs and took him hostage.

The crew negotiated the return of the pirate leader in return for the gang releasing Mr Phillips and leaving the ship in a lifeboat.

However, the pirates took the skipper hostage for five days until he was freed by US Navy Seals on Sunday.

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