Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet says the 26,000-ton bulk cargo carrier was attacked Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden.
She says the ship was flying a Hong Kong flag but is operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
The cargo ship "Delight" was carrying 25 crew members and 36,000 tonnes of wheat when it was attacked Tuesday as it headed for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua said, quoting the China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said none of the crew was from Hong Kong, but did not give details of their nationalities.
Xinhua said the crew were not mainland Chinese
"Our Marine Department knows that none of the crew onboard is from Hong Kong. We are following the matter up," he said, adding that he did not have any information about the exact location of the hijacking.
The status of the crew or its cargo were not known. Campbell says the ship is likely heading toward an anchorage site off the Somali coast.
The hijacking comes after a Saudi super-tanker " Sirius Star" carrying two million barrels of oil worth $100 million was seized over the weekend by Somali pirates. The tanker, the size of three football fields and three times the weight of a US aircraft carrier, is the largest ship ever seized by pirates and the hijacking was the furthest out to sea that Somali bandits struck.
This year, Somali pirates have attacked 90 ships, more than double the number in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Pirates are still holding 16 ships and more than 250 sailors.
Photo : Somali pirates
Tags: Iran, piracy, Somalia, source: Fox
