A United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship loaded with weapons has been seized by Somali pirates, a regional maritime official says.

The ship was bound for the anarchic Horn of Africa nation in contravention of a 16-year UN arms embargo, a Press TV correspondent quoted Andrew Mwangura, the head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, as saying on Monday.

Mwangura added, “The cargo ship is a regular carrier of weapons to Somalia and has been acting against the UN arms embargo.”

He stated that the ship, which was seized on Sunday and is now held near the northern Somali town of Garacad, was carrying weapons, including light ammunitions, rockets, and rocket-propelled grenades.

In the latest pirate attack, the European Union naval force EU Navfor said gunmen opened fire on a Hong Kong-flagged, 330-meter, 160,000-ton crude oil tanker, the BW Lion.

The attempted hijacking took place about 400 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles and 1,000 nautical miles east of the Somali capital Mogadishu, EU Navfor reported.

Somalia has been torn apart by 18 years of civil war, and Al Shabaab is currently fighting to topple President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's fragile UN-backed government.

About 19,000 civilians have died since the start of 2007 and over 1.5 million have been driven from their homes, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

FTP/HGL