Somali Pirates: Maersk vessel fights off pirates in Gulf of Oman

Reported as "Maersk vessel attacked by pirates in Gulf of Oman" by Reuters:

The Maersk Texas, a multi-purpose dry cargo ship, was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman but guards repelled the attack, Maersk Line Ltd, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk , said on Wednesday.

Private armed security guards win again.

 Photo of Maersk Texas (click on it to enlarge) from

ShipSpotting.com

© Rogério Cordeiro

UPDATE: Location should not be all that surprising - as you can see from the nearby weather maps (thanks, Weatheronline!), the winds off Oman are not so helpful for small boat ops, but inside the Gulf of Oman, the conditions are better. This situation was predicted by ONI in its Piracy Analysis and Warning Weekly issued 17 May 2012 from which the following weather guesser map of areas of likely pirate operations was obtained:

The white arrow is my attempt to point to the area of the Gulf of Oman that ONI pointed out as high risk.

Here is the WeatherOnline map of the Gulf of Oman from today:

 As you can see, it's pretty brisk out there except fairly well up into the Gulf of Oman.

UPDATE2: gCaptain has some more which may correct part of this interesting (but perhaps misleading) Bloomberg article identifying the area of the attack as being in the Gulf of Oman north of the port of Fujairah - roughly the area I pointed that white arrow to.