BOSASSO, Somalia, July 10 (Reuters) - Somali pirates hijacked an Indian dhow with 16 crew on Friday as it left the north coast, local officials and a regional maritime group said.

The seizure took place about 15 kilometers off Bosasso port in Gulf of Aden waters, they said.

"It might be a business deal that went sour," Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Reuters from Kenya's Mombasa port.

Abdiwahid Mohamed Hersi, director of local Puntland region's fishing ministry, said the boat had just unloaded goods at Bosasso and was en route to Dubai. "The pirates want to use the boat to hijack other ships," he told Reuters.

The sea gangs have made millions of dollars in ransom money by hijacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in recent years, despite the presence of foreign naval ships.

On Wednesday, pirates seized a Turkish ship, also in the Gulf of Aden. It was a rare attack for the season given rough sees at this time of year which make it difficult for pirates to manoeuvre the small skiffs they generally use. (Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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