The marauding sea bandits' latest catch was the St James Park, a UK-flagged chemical tanker with a crew of 26 from nine different countries, Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme said Tuesday.

He said the vessel, which was seized on Monday en route from Spain to Thailand, had been commandeered near the northern Somali coast.

"It is expected to arrive there later this evening," Mwangura told AFP.

He said the vessel's last port of call was Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and that the crew included seamen from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Philippines, Poland, Georgia, India and Turkey.

Also on Monday, Somali pirates captured a Greek-owned bulk carrier transporting fertiliser, Mwangura said.

The 52,000-tonne Navios Apollon was hijacked "en route from Tampa, Florida to Rozy, India," with a crew consisting of a Greek captain and 18 Filipinos.

The "Panama-flagged handymax bulk carrier, reported... that a number of armed men had boarded the vessel from two speed boats," operators Navios Maritime Partners said in a statement.

Earlier, pirates seized a Yemeni freighter and 15 crew members.

The Al-Mahmoudia2 left the port of Aden, in Yemen, on December 18, the Yemeni authorities said on Monday, without revealing the nature of its cargo or destination.

Crucially, the Yemeni freighter and the UK-flagged chemical tanker was intercepted by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, a key maritime bottleneck near the entrance to the Red Sea.

The two attacks in the Gulf of Aden were the first since August and came as international naval missions were trumpeting the results of a year-long effort to secure the area.

Since the end of the summer monsoon season allowed pirate attacks to resume three months ago, Somali pirates had abandoned the Gulf of Aden for the wide open seas of the Indian Ocean, venturing as far as the Seychelles and beyond.

Despite the increased international presence off Somalia's coastline -- the longest in Africa -- pirates raked in huge ransoms.

On Sunday, pirates said they collected 3.5 million dollars for the release of the Chinese bulk carrier Dexinhai.

The Singapore-flagged MV Kota Wajar was also released nearly 10 weeks after being hijacked, the European Union naval task force said Monday. The amount of the ransom is not yet known.

The latest captures and releases bring to at least 11 the number of ships currently held by pirates, together with close to 250 seamen, according to Ecoterra International, an environmentalist NGO monitoring maritime activity in the region.

Among those in captivity is a British couple captured on October 22 while sailing their yacht to Tanzania.

In a recent video broadcast, the pair -- Paul and Rachel Chandler -- said that their captors were "losing patience" and could kill them within a week if no ransom was paid.

The couple were briefly held on board the recently-released MV Kota Wajar.

Alongside the EU, the United States, NATO and other national navies also deployed warships off the Somali coast in December 2008 to protect vessels and secure maritime routes in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Thanks to state-of-the-art technology, huge budgets and ever-improving coordination, the foreign armada has thwarted many attacks and captured dozens of pirates, generally equipped with rudimentary skiffs, ladders and grapnels.

But one out of four ships sailing through the danger zone still does not comply with international recommendations for safe passage, the navies say.

Observers say piracy can only be eradicated through onshore efforts to end Somalia's 18 years of near-daily violence and lawlessness that have made the phenomenon one of the few viable businesses.

earlier related report
Chinese ship rescued from Somali pirates: report
Beijing (AFP) Dec 28, 2009 - A Chinese cargo ship and its crew of 25 were rescued from Somali pirates Monday, state media said, after their kidnappers collected a ransom of 3.5 million dollars (2.2 million euros).

The bulk carrier Dexinhai, hijacked on October 18 northeast of the Seychelles as it was sailing to India from South Africa, was freed at 2:33 am (1833 GMT), the Xinhua news agency reported, citing government officials.

The vessel, owned by Qingdao Ocean Shipping, had been taken to the Somali coast, between the pirate lairs of Harardere and Hobyo, where it laid at anchor with other captured vessels and negotiations on its fate began.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the hijacked vessel was under the protection of the Chinese naval escort fleet, according to the report.

"After the medical checkup of crew members and resupply of provisions, the fleet will escort the ship and the crew to a safe sea area, and then ensure their safe return to China as soon as possible, according to Jiang," Xinhua said.

Earlier, pirate leader Mohamed Rage told AFP by telephone: "We have been discussing with the Chinese ship owners for several weeks and they finally agreed to pay 3.5 million dollars."

"The money will be brought today so that we will free the ship within today once we get the money," he said, adding that the all-Chinese crew has been treated "humanely".

"The pirates are releasing the cargo today after they get the ransom agreed," a second pirate, Abdi Yare, told AFP by telephone from Harardhere.

Abdi Yasin Dhubane, a fisherman in the Harardhere area, said all pirates with a stake in the Dexinhai were seen boarding it on Saturday -- suggesting that a deal had been concluded.

"All the pirates who seized the ship are on board now and they are ready to receive the ransom to free the ship," Dhubane said.

The Dexinhai was seized more than 1,000 kilometres (550 nautical miles) from the Somali coast, showing the range of action of pirates in the Indian Ocean despite the efforts of a European Union naval task force.

Through its foreign ministry, the Chinese government had said it was doing all it could to recover the ship and its crew.

On December 17, pirates freed a Greek-flagged cargo ship, the MV Delvina, and its crew of 14 Filipinos and seven Ukrainians, 43 days after it was seized northeast of the Comoros Islands while en route from Ukraine to Kenya.

Its Dutch operators said nothing about a ransom, but Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the head of Ukrainian intelligence as saying that 3.5 million dollars -- half of what had been demanded -- was paid.

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