Pirates hijack ship delivering sugar cargo to Iran

An Iranian ship carrying thousands of tons of sugar to the country was hijacked by pirates, the North American Treaty Organization said.

The Eglantine was attacked yesterday morning in the Indian Ocean, Shona Lowe, a Northwood, U.K.-based spokeswoman for NATO, said by phone today. The ship has a transportation capacity of about 63,000 deadweight tons and was sailing from Brazil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

There are about 3,500 Somali pirates attacking vessels off Africa’s eastern coast in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, the United Nations said in February. Somali pirate attacks rose to a record 237 in 2011 and ransoms worth $160 million were paid to release 31 hijacked vessels, according to a One Earth Future Foundation report.

The vessel has a crew of 23 on board, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a London-based group tracking piracy attacks.