Deterrence after drone attacks
India sends warships to the Arabian Sea
December 26, 2023, 5:17 p.m
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Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, ships in the Red Sea have been increasingly attacked by Houthi rebels from Yemen. On Saturday it hit the oil and chemical tanker “MV Chem Pluto”. He was attacked with drones. India is now reacting and sending its navy.
India plans to send three warships to the Arabian Sea after a suspected drone attack on a merchant ship off its coast. These were intended to serve as a deterrent, as the Indian Navy announced. The Liberian-flagged oil and chemical tanker “MV Chem Pluto” was hit around 200 nautical miles off the mainland last Saturday. The crew was able to put out a fire on board. There were no injuries or deaths.
After the attack, the Indian Coast Guard accompanied the tanker to the port of the Indian metropolis of Mumbai, it was said. The ship was actually supposed to bring crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the southern Indian city of Mangaluru, as the Defense Ministry in New Delhi announced. India depends heavily on oil from the Middle East – even though the country has been sourcing more Russian oil since the Ukraine war.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that who was responsible for the attacks was being investigated, according to local news agency PTI. According to the US Department of Defense, Iran is to blame. The Foreign Ministry in Tehran rejected the accusation. Since the war in Gaza began, ships in the Red Sea have been increasingly attacked by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
As a result, several large shipping companies changed the routes of their ships. They take long detours to get around the Red Sea. On Saturday, a senior general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) warned the US and the West that further international sea routes could be blocked.