Somali pirates have seized a Yemeni cargo vessel with a crew of 16 and are taking it out towards the Indian Ocean, a Yemeni Defence Ministry website said on Monday, according to Reuters. The vessel, called Al Mahmoud 2, had left Yemen"s southern port of Aden on Dec. 18, with 15 sailors and a captain on board -- all Yemenis, the impoverished Arab country"s coastguard told the website. On Dec. 14, a regional maritime group said pirates had seized an Indian dhow off the coast of Somalia in the third such incident in a week. Heavily armed Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.
