Piracy Continues in Somalia

MOMBASA, Kenya - A cargo ship loaded with humanitarian aid was headed to Kenya under Navy escort Wednesday after evading pirates firing grenades and automatic weapons, the second unsuccessful hijacking attempt of a U.S. freighter in a week, officials said.
In defiance of President Barack Obama's vow to halt their banditry, pirates have seized four vessels and some 60 hostages off the Horn of Africa since Sunday's rescue of an American freighter captain from the drifting lifeboat where he was held hostage. If they had been successful Tuesday, the MV Liberty Sun would have been the fifth.
The Liberty Sun's American crew was not injured in the attack but the vessel sustained unspecified damage, owner Liberty Maritime Corp. said in a statement Tuesday night.
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"We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets," crewman Thomas Urbik, 26, wrote his mother in an e-mail Tuesday. "We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. (A) rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out."
‘Evasive maneuvers’The Liberty Sun "conducted evasive maneuvers" to ward off the pirates before help arrived, said U.S. Navy Lt. Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
"That could be anything from zigzagging to speeding up to all kinds of things," he said. "We've seen in the past that that can be very effective in deterring a pirate attack."
A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, responded to the attack but the pirates had departed by the time it arrived some five hours later, Navy Capt. Jack Hanzlik said.
After arriving on the scene, the Bainbridge sent "a small security detachment" onboard the Liberty Sun to ensure that its crew of about 20 mariners was safe, Christensen said. Urbik sent a follow-up e-mail to his mother "that said he was safe and they had a naval escort taking them in," Katy Urbik said.
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The Bainbridge is the same destroyer from which Navy SEAL snipers killed three pirates holding freighter captain Richard Phillips captive aboard the powerless lifeboat. A fourth pirate surrendered. Phillips had been held captive for five days after exchanging himself to safeguard his crew during a thwarted hijacking of the Alabama by the pirates last week.
The Bainbridge was carrying Phillips to Kenya when it was called to respond to the attack on the Liberty Sun. He was still on board when the Bainbridge arrived to help the Liberty Sun, Christensen said.
U.S. captain to return homePhillips was to return home to the United States on Wednesday, after reuniting with his 19-man crew in the port city of Mombasa, according to the shipping company Maersk Line Ltd. It was not immediately clear how his detour would affect that plan.
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U.S. ship escapes pirate attack April 15: A U.S. cargo ship is damaged by rocket and automatic weapon fire after another attempt by Somali pirates to seize an American vessel. The crew was uninjured in the attack. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports.
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The Liberty Sun, with its crew of about 20 Americans, was carrying humanitarian aid to Mombasa. Liberty Maritime said the ship set off from Houston and had already delivered thousands of tons of food aid to a port in Sudan.
"We commend the entire crew for its professionalism and poise under fire," the Lake Success, N.Y.-based company said in the statement. President Philip J. Shapiro and chief financial officer Dale B. Moses declined to comment further.
Katy Urbik, said she was "very relieved and grateful to God for protecting him and to our Navy, and that we come from a country that can respond like that and protect our citizens."