I came across this rather unusual story while surfing clicking links.

On the 21st of August the Iranian merchant vessel MV Iran Deyanat, a 44468 dead weight tonnage bulk carrier was en route towards the Suez and had entered the Gulf of Aden.  A dangerous area for piracy in the best of times, it has recently gotten worse.  They were attacked by up to 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket propelled grenade.  The Captain surrendered his vessel.

The pirates had the vessel brought to Eyl, a village in Northeastern Somalia where 50 more pirates came aboard with another 50 staying ashore.  Now it starts to get interesting because within days, the pirates who had boarded the ship starting displaying symptoms such as skin burns, loss of hair, and other strange symptoms.  According to Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, an unknown number of the pirates have died.

An investigative delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman was dispatched on Sept 4th to investigate the situation.  Osman stated during the six days of negotiations several pirates had become sick and died.  He added, "That ship is unusual.  It is not carrying a normal shipment."

The manifest states the cargo consists of minerals and industrial products; However, local authorities are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents.

The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking. According to the US Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

The crew itself is under suspicion as of a crew of 29 men, 14 are Irani.  A large percentage for a standard merchant vessel.  The rest of the crew is comprised of Eastern Europeans, Filipinos, Indians and a Pakistani Captain.

In yet another strange twist to this saga, the Iranian press claims the USA has offered the pirates a bribe of $7 million to "receive entry permission and search the vessel." Officials in the Pentagon, the Department of State, as well as Somali officials approached for this story refused to comment on the situation.

Iran's involvement in the conflict in Somalia on behalf of Islamist insurgents is well documented. In 2006, Iran flouted arms embargo's and provided sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), including SA-7 Strella and SA-18 Igla MANPADS - shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles - as well as AT-3 Sagger antitank missiles.

A report issued by the United Nations in 2006 states that weapons were transferred to Somalia through Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which also absorbed a contingent of 700 Islamist fighters from Somalia during Hezbollah's war with Israel. The report also states that Iran provided support for Islamist training camps inside Somalia and had sent two emissaries to negotiate with the ICU for access to Somalia's uranium mines.

It will be interesting to see where this story goes and just what the cargo is.