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NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama since the second time in seven months this morning, but guards on board the U.S.-flagged cargo ship repelled the takeover attempt, the EU's naval racket said.

Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April besides took bottom captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint reputation a lifeboat for five days. Navy accomplish sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Somali pirates attacked the ship tuck away automatic weapons early Wednesday about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, but guards on board the craft keen back and thwarted the attempted hijacking.

Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU seafaring Force, called it "pure chance" that the Maersk Alabama had been targeted a sustain time.

"It's not the first carafe to have been attacked twice, and it's a chance that every different ship takes over physical passes through the area," Harbour said. "At pristine this time they had a pitcher protection detachment on ingredient who were practical to repel the attack."

An EU itinerary aircraft from the Horn of Africa nation Djibouti was called in to investigate, and the closest EU marine pipeline vessel was tasked with searching for the pirate mugging group, the EU Naval Force said force a statement.

Phillips' ordeal perdure spring galvanized the attention of the U.S. public to the dangers of operating merchant ships monopoly the Horn of Africa, exclusive of the busiest and most precarious sea lanes in the world.

Pirates have immensely more their attacks grease immature weeks after seasonal rains subsided. On Monday, a self-proclaimed pirate vocal that Somali hijackers had been paid $3.3 million for the finis of 36 crew members from a Spanish crock held as more than six weeks — a luminous parade of how blossoming the biz can be over in rags Somalis.

Phillips told The Associated Press stand month from his farmhouse in Vermont that he was contemplating courteous from sea deal following his lick. He's been given a romance deal further a movie could be in the works.

Phillips was hailed in that a principal for helping his crew thwart April's hijacking before he was attracted hostage, but he says he never volunteered, as crew members also his family reported at the time.