Somali pirates hijack Yemeni cargo ship

By Daniel Wallis

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni ship loaded with steel, officials said on Tuesday, and one of Asia's biggest shippers said it was diverting vulnerable vessels away from the dangerous Gulf of Aden.

Scores of attacks this year have brought the pirates millions of dollars in ransoms, hiked up shipping insurance costs, sent foreign navies rushing to the area, and left about a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages still in pirate hands.

Among them is a Saudi supertanker seized on November 15 in the biggest ever hijacking at sea. Local sources said the gang holding it were demanding a $15 million ransom.

Yemen's official SABA news agency said the Yemeni ship MV Adina was traveling from Mukalla port to the southern island of Socotra and had been due to dock on November 20 with 507 tons of steel.

Yemeni security sources said the authorities were in touch with the pirates, who were demanding a $2 million ransom.

The sources said the vessel was owned by Yemeni shipping firm Abu Talal and was carrying seven crew -- three Somalis, two Yemenis and two Panamanians.

Taiwan shipping company TMT, meanwhile, said it is re-routing 20 oil tankers via the Cape of Good Hope. TMT's fleet is regularly employed to ferry crude oil supplies to consumers in Europe and the United States.

The capture of the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star -- loaded with oil worth $100 million and 25 crew -- has focused world attention on the Somali pirates. The Gulf of Aden links Europe to Asia and is one of the world's busiest shipping corridors.

Following the hijack of an Iranian-chartered ship last week, a senior Iranian government official was quoted as saying Tehran could use force against the buccaneers if needed.

In neighboring Kenya, the United States military's Africa Command said it was worried the pirates may forge ties with terrorist groups but that it had no evidence of links between the hijackers and al Qaeda.

Africom commander General William Ward told a news conference in Nairobi that the international community was looking "very seriously" at piracy.

Germany could send up to 1,400 soldiers to the Gulf of Aden as part of a European Union force due to start operation next month, government sources in Berlin said.

The piracy has been fueled by civil strife onshore, where the western-backed government is fighting Islamist insurgents.

At least some of the Islamist militants who control southern Somalia want to attack the pirates and free the Saudi tanker because it is a "Muslim" ship. But some Somalis say other Islamist militia want a cut of any ransom.

(Additional reporting by Mohamed Sudam in Sanaa, Edmund Blair in Tehran and Stefano Ambrogi in London; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)