Fire broke out on ship
Houthis attack British oil tanker “frontally”
January 27, 2024, 12:57 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
An oil tanker flying the Panama flag observes two explosions in the Gulf of Aden. A security company reports that a fire broke out on a British oil tanker after it was attacked. A US Navy destroyer fends off an anti-ship missile.
Several ships were attacked again off the coast of Yemen. A fire broke out on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden after a suspected rocket hit, British security firm Ambrey said. In the same area, an oil tanker flying the Panama flag reported the sighting of several “explosions”. Meanwhile, according to US information, a US Navy warship repelled a missile fired by Houthi fighters in Yemen.
The merchant ship was hit by a “missile” that caused a fire, Ambrey explained. The crew was safe. Houthi militias in Yemen said they had targeted the British oil tanker “Marlin Luanda” in the Gulf of Aden and fired rockets at it. The ship was “hit head-on” and caught fire, said a spokesman for the Iranian-backed militia. It was not clear from these two statements whether the two incidents involved the same ship. According to one BBC report but this should be the case. According to Reuters it is a British oil tanker.
Shortly before, according to Ambrey, an oil tanker flying the Panama flag had observed “two explosions” in the Gulf of Aden. The British Maritime Security Agency (UKMTO) confirmed the information. No damage was reported. According to Ambrey, the target of the shelling was initially unclear. There was initially no information from the Houthis.
Anti-ship missile flies towards destroyer USS Carney
A US Navy warship repelled a missile fired by Houthi fighters in Yemen, according to US reports. The militia fired a “ballistic anti-ship missile” at the destroyer “USS Carney” in the Gulf of Aden, the US Central Command (Centcom) said in online media. The rocket was successfully launched and there were no reports of damage or injuries, it said.
Since mid-November, Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen have attacked numerous ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that they accuse of having ties to Israel. The militia sees itself as part of the self-proclaimed “Axis of Resistance” directed against Israel, to which the radical Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip also belongs. In response to the attacks, the US and Britain attacked Houthi positions in Yemen.
The shipping route from the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean is an extremely important route for world trade and passes directly past Yemen. Because of the Houthi attacks on container ships, several shipping companies are already avoiding sailing through the Red Sea, which is leading to delays and increased freight costs due to the long detours.