Somali pirates hijack another ship in Gulf of Aden

Gulf of Aden: Somali pirates on Thursday hijacked a German-owned tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas in the Gulf of Aden, the third ship to be taken this year, a maritime group said.

Pirates freed at the weekend the MT Biscaglia which had 30 crew on board, 25 Indians, three Britons and two Bangladeshis. It was hijacked on November 28.

A Danish general cargo ship was also released earlier this month. The CEC Future was hijacked off Somalia on November 7.

Below are some of the ships believed to be still held:

FAINA: Seized September 24. The ship was carrying 33 T-72 tanks, grenade launchers and ammunition destined for Kenya's Mombasa port.

Pirates have demanded $20 million in ransom.

STOLT STRENGTH: Seized November 10. The chemical tanker had 23 Filipino crew aboard. It was carrying 23,818 tonnes of oil products.

TIANYU 8: Seized November 13/14. The Chinese fishing boat was reported seized off Kenya. The crew included 15 Chinese, one Taiwanese, one Japanese, three Filipinos and four Vietnamese.

CHEMSTAR VENUS: Seized November 15. The tanker was travelling from Dumai, Indonesia, to Ukraine. It had 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew.

NAMES UKNOWN: Seized on December 10. Pirates hijacked two Yemeni fishing vessels with a total of 22 crew in coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden. Five crew reportedly escaped.

NAMES UNKNOWN: Seized on December 16. A yacht with two on board, an Indonesian tugboat used by French oil company Total and a 100-metre (330-ft) cargo ship belonging to an Istanbul-based shipping company were hijacked. Pirates also hijacked the Chinese fishing vessel Zhenhua-4 with 30 Chinese crew aboard but it was freed the next day.

BLUE STAR: Seized on January 1, 2009. The Egyptian merchant ship was sailing east with a cargo of 6,000 tonnes of urea, a product used as a fertiliser. It had 28 Egyptian crew aboard.

LONGCHAMP: Seized on January 29, 2009. The liquefied petroleum gas tanker, built in 1990, has 13 crew on board, 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian. The tanker has a capacity of 3,415 tonnes.