Somalis hijack grain ship, take Spaniards hostage

By Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali pirates seized a Greek-owned vessel full of wheat in the Indian Ocean on Thursday and threatened to hand three Spanish captives to the families of two suspected gunmen being held in Spain.

The Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier MV Delvina was hijacked with seven Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board, the EU anti-piracy naval force said.

Pirates have plundered the busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia for years. Foreign warships from 16 nations are patrolling the area to try and prevent hijacks, but the sea gangs are hunting for ships far into the Indian Ocean.

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Association said the MV Delvina was seized some 250 nautical miles (460 km) northwest of the island of Madgascar.

A spokesman for the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry said the MV Delvina was sailing from the Mediterranean to the Kenyan port of Mombasa and that the company Meadway Shipping and Trading confirmed the incident.

While there was a lull in hijackings during monsoon rains, pirates have stepped up attacks in the past few weeks and are now holding some 10 vessels and at least 187 hostages.

Turkish navy commandos detained five pirates trying to hijack a Greek boat in the Gulf of Aden, the Turkish military said on Thursday.

The pirate gangs -- some made up of former fishermen angered by the presence of foreign fishing fleets in Somali waters -- have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.