Pirates hijack ship off Somalia: maritime agency
Reuters Monday, March 29, 2010; 9:31 AM

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Pirates seized a roll-on roll-off ship named MV Iceberg 1 with 24 crew members off the port of Aden on Monday, a maritime monitoring agency said.

It was the third ship reported to have been seized by pirates in the waters off east Africa since Saturday.

"The owners reported to NATO that pirates boarded the ro-ro vessel MV Iceberg 1 today just 10 miles outside Aden Port in the Gulf of Aden," said the Kenyan-based Ecoterra.

"The vessel with her 24 member crew is now commandeered toward the Somali coast." Ecoterra gave no more information on the hijacked vessel.

Somali buccaneers are highly active off the coast of Somalia, increasing the range of their attacks, acquiring millions of dollars in ransoms and defying a flotilla of foreign warships that is trying to monitor the region's sea lanes. More...