Pirates have seized a US-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden waterway.
The crew were believed to be unharmed on the tugboat, which was operated from the United Arab Emirates.
NATO alliance officials on board the Portuguese warship NRB Corte-Real, which is patrolling the Gulf of Aden, said a distress call came from the MV Buccaneer tugboat but communications were lost six minutes later. They said 10 of the tugboat's crew were Italian citizens.
Meanwhile, pirates on a German ship with 24 foreign hostages said today they had returned to the Somali coast after failing to locate the scene of a standoff involving an American captive on a drifting lifeboat.
The pirates had hoped to use the hijacked 20,000-tonne container vessel,
Hansa Stavanger, as a "shield" to reach fellow pirates holding American ship captain Richard Phillips far out in the Indian Ocean. US naval ships are close to the lifeboat.
"We have come back to Haradheere coast. We could not locate the lifeboat," one pirate on the German ship, who identified himself as Suleiman said. "We almost got lost because we could not find the bearing of the lifeboat."
The German ship was seized off south Somalia between Kenya and the Seychelles and has a crew of 24.
Somali elders and relatives of pirates holding Phillips are planning a mediation mission to secure his release, a regional maritime group said.
"They want to resolve this in the traditional Somali way of negotiations," Andrew Mwangura said. "They are just looking to arrange safe passage for the pirates, no ransom."
Separately, French special forces stormed a yacht held by pirates elsewhere in the Indian Ocean in an assault that killed one hostage, but freed four.
Two pirates were killed and three captured.
Earlier today Nato staff said pirates had attacked a Panama-flagged bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen.
An unexploded rocket-propelled grenade had landed in the commanding officer's cabin and bullets were fired at the ship before it repelled the attack with water-hoses, said the officials, aboard a Portuguese warship in the area.
More US warships have been sent towards the powerless lifeboat drifting in international waters off Somalia, where pirates have been holding Phillips since trying to hijack his ship, the 17,000-tonne, Danish-owned
Maersk Alabama, on Wednesday.
The American captain apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew, who regained control of the
Maersk Alabama, which is carrying food relief to Kenya. Later Mr Phillips tried to escape by jumping overboard, but was quickly recaptured.
Close by, the destroyer
USS Bainbridgelaunched drones that monitored the incident and kept radio contact with the pirates. The
Bainbridgewants a peaceful outcome to the standoff with the assistance of FBI experts, a US official said.
Mr Phillips is one of about 250 hostages being held by Somali pirates preying on the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
The biggest nationality among the hostages is Filipino and the pirates are keeping about 16 captured vessels at or near Eyl, Hobyo and Haradheere on Somalia's eastern coast - five of them taken in the last week alone.
Mr Phillips is the first US citizen seized.
"Once again, it has taken American involvement to get world powers really interested," said a diplomat who tracks Somalia from Nairobi. "I hope they don't forget the Filipinos and all the others, once this guy is released."
The pirate gang holding Phillips remained defiant despite the arrival of US and other naval ships in the area.
"We are not afraid of the Americans," one of the pirates said by satellite phone. "We will defend ourselves if attacked."
The pirates are demanding $2 million for his release and a guarantee of their own safety, a pirate source said.
Officials in Washington confirmed reinforcements were nearby. The frigate
USS Halyburton, equipped with guided missiles and helicopters, and a German frigate.
The
USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, was also heading for the lifeboat's general area, mainly in case its medical facilities were required.
In France, the government stood by its raid to free the yacht, which was hijacked en route to Zanzibar last weekend with two couples and a 3-year-old child aboard.
"During the operation, a hostage sadly died," said French resident Nicolas Sarkozy's office. But it said the president "confirms France's determination not to give in to blackmail and to defeat the pirates".
Reuters