The Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama this Wednesday for the second time around since the first American-flag ship seized by pirates last April.

During the last April attack, the pirates took ship captain Richard Philips hostage, hold him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for about five days.

Now the Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama with automatic weapons early this Wednesday morning about 350 nautical miles east of Somali coast, but the guards on board the craft fired back and tried to prevent the attempted hijacking.

Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force, called it “pure chance” that the Maersk Alabama had been targeted a second time.

The United States Navy Central Command said four suspected pirates in a skiff came within 300 yards of the Maersk Alabama at 6.30 a.m. Wednesday about 600 miles off the northeast coast of Somalia as it headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

In April, the captain of the Maersk Alabama volunteered to board a lifeboat with pirates in return for the safety of his 19 crew members. He was held for several days aboard the lifeboat, which was closely trailed by a U.S. warship.

The attempt to seize it again showed just how much piracy has become a multimillion-dollar business in Somalia, a nation that has limped along since 1991 without a functioning central government, offering safe haven for an array of seaborne brigands while, on land, the country is torn by civil strife.

Somali pirates released a Spanish tuna fishing boat on Tuesday but are still holding at least 13 vessels and more than 200 crew members hostage.

Source: Reuters