Somali pirates hijack Indian cargo ship with 15 members aboard

Kuala Lumpur, Jul 11 (PTI) An Indian cargo vessel with
15 crew members on board has been hijacked by Somali pirates
off the port city of Bosasso in Gulf of Aden waters, a media
report said Saturday.

The vessel with 15 Indian crew was captured Friday
just 14 nautical miles off the port city of Bosasso after it
had discharged goods from UAE at the Somali harbour from where
it was sailing off, the Australian.to website reported.

The report said that a business deal between the
pirates and the authorities had gone sour.

The authorities have dispatched a security detail to
re-capture the vessel which is at the moment commandeered
towards Qandala, the online report said.

The vessel is said to operate regularly between Saudi
Arabia and the African coast.

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African
Seafarers' Assistance Programme, based in Kenya's Mombasa port
said that it could have been a case of "a business deal that
went sour".

Noel Choong, Head of the International Maritime
Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre here, could not be reached
for his comments.

On Wednesday, pirates had seized a Turkish ship with
23 crew members on board carrying sulfate from Saudi Arabia to
Jordan, also in the Gulf of Aden. PTI JB
DDC