Red Sea Vessel Attacked, Crew Abandons Ship After It Takes On Water: Report

The unit of a Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned alloy sailing successful nan Red Sea abandoned vessel precocious Sunday, July 6, aft it caught occurrence and took connected h2o owed to an onslaught involving grenades, gunfire and oversea drones. While nan Houthis person not yet claimed work for nan attack, a British maritime agency and information patient tied it to nan Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group.

Crew abandons vessel aft it catches fire, takes connected water

According to an incident report from nan United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), nan vessel –– known arsenic nan Magic Seas –– came nether gunfire and was deed by self-propelled grenades that were launched from aggregate mini boats.

Members of nan unit returned fire, but nan vessel was subsequently deed pinch 4 Unmanned Surface Vehicles, aliases USVs. “Two of nan USVs impacted nan larboard broadside of nan vessel, damaging nan vessel’s cargo,” nan British maritime information patient Ambrey said successful an advisory.

A root pinch nan maritime information institution Diaplous told Reuters that contempt nan unit having to wantonness nan ship, location were nary reports of injuries.

The onslaught occurred astir 60 miles southwest of nan Houthi stronghold of Hodeida successful Yemen.

“It apt serves arsenic a connection that nan Houthis proceed to person nan capacity and willingness to onslaught astatine strategical maritime targets sloppy of negotiated developments,” Mohammad al-Basha, a Yemen expert astatine nan Basha Report consequence advisory firm, wrote.

Tensions emergence pursuing US strikes connected Iranian atomic facilities

The Houthis began an violative successful nan Red Sea successful support of Hamas pursuing nan commencement of its warfare pinch Israel successful October 2023. Since then, nan group has launched much than 100 strikes targeting ships, citing solidarity pinch nan Palestinian cause.

As precocious arsenic March, nan group claimed work for 2 attacks disconnected Yemen’s seashore successful 24 hours. Then, successful April, a U.S. Navy combatant pitchy was swept overboard while making a abrupt difficult move to evade Houthi fire.

However, successful May, nan U.S. and Houthis agreed to a ceasefire. At nan time, President Donald Trump said, “The Houthis person announced … that they don’t want to conflict immoderate more. They conscionable don’t want to fight. And we will grant that, and we will extremity nan bombings, and they person capitulated.”

 Sunday’s incident marked nan first onslaught since April.

The onslaught connected nan Magic Seas comes aft nan U.S. struck 3 Iranian atomic accommodation connected June 21 –– a move nan rebel group described arsenic “brutal and cowardly aggression,” adding, “The Yemeni consequence to nan U.S. is only a matter of time.”

A time earlier nan U.S. strikes connected Iran’s atomic facilities, nan Houthis had vowed to locomotion distant from their promise not to onslaught ships successful nan Red Sea if nan U.S. straight progressive itself pinch Israel’s various wars and conflicts.

U.S. officials person said nan attacks jeopardize world shipping and location security. The Red Sea is 1 of nan world’s busiest maritime routes, and Houthi actions person raised security rates and threatened world proviso chains.