Somali pirates hijack ship with 20 Americans on board

Mogadishu: Somali pirates hijacked a US-flagged, Danish-owned container ship on Wednesday with 20 American crew on board in a major escalation in attacks off the lawless Horn of Africa nation, officials said.

The 17,000 tonne Maersk Alabama was seized off Mogadishu far out in the Indian Ocean, but all its crew were believed to be unharmed, Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Reuters.

Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk confirmed the US-flagged Maersk Alabama had been attacked by pirates about 500km off Somalia and was presumed hijacked. The company said it had 20 American crew on board.

In Washington, White House staff were closely monitoring the situation and assessing what steps to take. "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Among the ship's cargo were 400 containers of food aid, including 232 containers belonging to the UN's World Food Programme that were destined for Somalia and Uganda.

In the latest wave of pirate attacks, gunmen from Somalia seized a British-owned ship on Monday after hijacking another three vessels over the weekend.

In the first three months of 2009 just eight ships were hijacked in the strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Europe via the Suez Canal.