Somali pirates on Wednesday seized a Panama-flagged cargo ship and in a separate incident the crew of a captured Libyan vessel regained control of it, killing some bandits, the EU's anti-piracy taskforce said. EU NAVFOR said a U.S. warship had seen at least one person with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on board the MV QSM Dubai after it was raided in the Gulf of Aden. It said the crew were from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ghana. The 15,220 deadweight tonne vessel was seized inside the internationally recommended transit corridor and had come from Brazil. It was not immediately clear what cargo the MV QSM Dubai was carrying, Reuters reported. Somali pirates have continued their hijackings, making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, despite an international flotilla of warships patrolling the waters off the lawless Horn of Africa nation that link Europe with Africa and Asia. Typically the pirates anchor the vessels off their land-based havens until a ransom is paid, at which point the vessel along with its crew and cargo is released.
