Pirates Seize German Ship

Hijackers seized a German-owned ship in the pirate-infested waters between Somalia and Yemen today, a US Navy spokesman said. Pirates captured the Maltese-flagged MV Patriot in the Gulf of Aden about 150 nautical miles southeast of the Yemeni coastal city of Muqalla. An official from the German Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm the ship's capture.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, a group that monitors pirate activity off the African coast, said the ship has 17 crew members but could not give their nationalities. He said the large cargo vessel is designed to carry grain, but said he did not know what cargo it contained when it was captured. (More Somalia stories.)