Somali pirates hijack US-operated cargo ship: reports
Hurriyet Daily News with wires
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Somali pirates have hijacked a cargo ship with 21 Americans onboard, a diplomatic source told AP.
He says the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was taken Wednesday. The Kenya-based diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Company representatives and a spokeswoman from the U.S. embassy in Nairobi were not immediately able to confirm the hijacking.
Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program said the ship was taken about 400 miles (640 kilometers) from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week and the first with an all-American crew.
Piracy is rife and well organized in the area where Somalia’s northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal. More than 130 ships were attacked in the area in 2008 alone.
In February, Turkey committed the TGC Giresun frigate to join the multinational task force designed to combat the often heavily armed pirates that operate high-powered speedboats and sometimes hold ships for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship owners.
Photo is an archive image.
