AL-MUKALLA: The Houthi militia in Yemen attacked two ships in the Red Sea, one of them several times, using explosive-laden drone boats and other weapons.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, an agency that tracks assaults on ships, said both of the ships and their crews were safe.
The agency said that in one of the incidents, the ship’s master saw an explosion near the ship at about 7 a.m. on Tuesday, while it was about 63 nautical miles southwest of the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. Hours later, the master reported a small boat close to his vessel was “acting suspiciously and flashing lights towards the ship,” and that his ship had been attacked by a drone boat that was “successfully disabled.”
UKMTO said that in the other attack, which took place 97 nautical miles northwest of Hodeidah, the ship’s master similarly reported an explosion in the vicinity of the vessel. The agency urged other traffic in the Red Sea to exercise caution and notify it of any suspicious incidents.
The Joint Maritime Information Center identified the ship involved in the first incident, which was attacked several times, as the Delta Atlantica, a Liberia-flagged crude oil tanker. The center provided a different timeline to the events than UKMTO, reporting that the first attack on the vessel occurred on Monday night, when the ship’s master saw a boat flashing lights followed by “two simultaneous explosions (about 550 meters) off the port” side of the vessel. The ship was not hit and no damage was caused.
At 1:47 a.m. on Tuesday, a boat once again approached the ship and flashed lights toward it. Almost two hours later, the master reported an explosion near the ship. Less than an hour after that, a remotely operated boat hit the vessel but did not explode and security staff destroyed it.
According to the website Marine Traffic, which tracks ships and provides information about them, the Delta Atlantica was traveling from Basra in Iraq to Agioi Theodoroi in Greece.
The JMIC identified the ship involved in the second incident as the On Phoenix, a crude oil tanker flying a Panamanian flag. The center said that at about 1 a.m. GMT on Tuesday “the Master reported an explosion (about 180 meters) off the port” side. It was sailing from Kuwait to the Netherlands, according to data from Marine Traffic.
The attacks were the latest in a string of assaults on international shipping by the Houthis. Since November, they have seized one commercial vessel, sunk two others, and used hundreds of ballistic missiles, armed drones and drone boats to target commercial and naval shipping in the Red Sea and other waters off the coast of Yemen. They claim to be acting in support of the Palestinian people and the attacks are intended to put pressure on Israeli authorities to end the war in Gaza.
In an effort to halt the Houthi attacks on international shipping, the US has formed a coalition of marine task forces to protect vessels, redesignated the Houthis as a terrorist organization, and launched strikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen.
