Kenya ? Pirates have seized a German-owned ship in the pirate-infested waters between Somalia and Yemen, a U.S. Navy spokesman said Saturday.

Pirates captured the Maltese-flagged MV Patriot early on Saturday in the Gulf of Aden about 150 nautical miles southeast of the coastal Yemeni city of Muqalla, said U.S. Navy 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen.

An official from the German Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm the ship’s capture on Saturday.

Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa, Kenya-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program, a group that monitors pirate activity off the African coast, said the ship has 17 crew members but could not name their nationalities. He said the large cargo vessel is designed to carry grain, but said he did not know what cargo it contained when it was captured.