Somali pirates seize Iranian fishing vessel with 23 aboard

Somali pirates have seized an Iranian fishing vessel carrying 23 people, the European Union's Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean said, warning that the ship was approaching a lane used by commercial traffic and could become a floating base for further attacks.

The vessel, the Azini, was hijacked on Thursday between the coastal towns of Bandar Bayla and Hafun in northeastern Somalia, a maritime security officer with the Puntland Maritime Police Force told the South China Morning Post on Sunday. The officer said 12 pirates seized the ship.

The Hindu reported that the seizure raised fears of attacks on cargo ships.

Puntland is a semi-autonomous region of northeastern Somalia that runs its own maritime police force. Bandar Bayla and Hafun sit on its Indian Ocean coastline, close to routes taken by merchant vessels rounding the Horn of Africa.

The security centre said the captured fishing vessel was moving towards a shipping lane, a position that would let the pirates use it to reach larger ships farther offshore rather than relying on small skiffs.

Neither report said where the 23 people on board are from, what condition they are in, or whether a ransom demand has been made.

Seizures of fishing dhows have been a recurring feature of Somali piracy, with armed men taking the boats and their crews to use as cover while they hunt for merchant shipping. The reporting from the South China Morning Post and The Hindu did not give figures for how many such attacks have taken place this year, or say whether any warship has been sent to intercept the Azini.

The Puntland officer's account placed the hijacking four days before the reports were published. The European Union centre did not say in the published remarks how it had tracked the vessel's course.