BRUSSELS (AFP) - Pirates boarded and hijacked a merchant vessel and its mixed-race crew of 24 in the Gulf of Aden before sailing it towards the Somali coast, NATO announced Monday. NATOs counter piracy operation, Ocean Shield, said in a statement that the ship had been just 10 nautical miles from the Yemeni coast when pirates boarded and hijacked the roll-on, roll-off vessel. They took hostage 24 crew and are now sailing the vessel towards the Somali coast, it added, after receiving a report from the ships owners. A spokesman for the European Unions Navfor naval force, operating in the area, said the hijacked crew members were from Ghana, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sudan and Yemen. The 4,500-tonne Panamanian-flagged Iceberg 1, owned by Iceberg International Ltd, was carrying general mechanical equipment and heading for the United Arab Emirates when it was attacked, Navfor said. Somali pirates have become a chronic hazard for shipping in the region. They hijack vessels exclusively for ransom payments, which are regularly made. Navfors Operation Atalantas patrols the pirate-infested waters off Somalia, protecting vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Both the pirate attacks and the international naval protection efforts have increased since the end of the northern hemispheres winter.