“The Kenyan-based Ecoterra maritime monitoring agency said pirates had taken control of a roll-on, roll-off ship called the MV Iceberg 1 on Monday.

‘The owners reported to NATO that pirates boarded the ro-ro vessel MV Iceberg 1 today just 10 miles outside Aden Port in the Gulf of Aden,’ Ecoterra said. ‘The vessel with her 24 member crew is now commandeered toward the Somali coast.’

“A suspected pirate has been shot dead as private guards repelled an attack on a cargo ship off Somalia, in what may have been the first such incident.

The EU naval force (Navfor) says the suspect was found dead by a team from an EU warship which was responding to a distress call from the cargo ship.

Guards aboard the Panamanian-flagged MV Almezaan had returned fire after the ship was attacked, it added.

“The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence said on its website that ships in the Red Sea, the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait between Yemen and Djibouti, and the Gulf of Aden along Yemen’s coast were at the greatest risk.

‘Information suggests that al Qaeda remains interested in maritime attacks in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen,’ the office said in a statement, citing an advisory by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

‘Although it is unclear how they would proceed, it may be similar in nature to the attacks against the USS Cole in October 2000 and the M/V Limburg in October 2002 where a small to mid-size boat laden with explosives was detonated,’ it added.