Somali pirates hijack three ships off gulf of Aden

NAIROBI – Somali pirates hijacked three vessels in less than two days, diplomats and officials said yesterday, with the pattern of attacks suggesting the pirates are trying to evade warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

The Taiwanese ship Win Far 161 was seized early yesterday with 29 crew onboard near an island in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for America’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. It is the second attack in the Seychelles within a week.A small Yemeni boat was also hijacked in the Indian Ocean on Sunday and a 32,000-tonne British-owned bulk carrier, the Malaspina Castle, was hijacked early on Monday in the Gulf of Aden, officials said.The hijacking of the Taiwanese vessel and Yemeni boat are the latest in a series of attacks in the Indian Ocean. A 20,000-ton German container ship, the Hansa Stavanger, was also seized there on Saturday.Analysts say the pirates have moved many of their operations out of the Gulf of Aden, which is heavily patrolled by naval warships from countries including China, the United States, France and India.Instead, they are targeting ships coming out of the Mozambique Channel, an area of the Indian Ocean further south between the southeastern Africa coast and Madagascar. – Nampa-AP