The Iran-aligned Houthis attacked and damaged two commercial vessels in the Red Sea near Yemen early on Tuesday, as the conflict in the Middle East escalated in recent days with Israeli attacks on Yemen and Israel’s killing of the top Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.
The oil tanker Cordelia Moon, flying a Panama flag, and the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Minoan Courage came under attack from missiles and a drone boat while transiting the Red Sea near Yemen, various reports say.
One vessel was hit by an unmanned boat, and the master reported that a ballast tank had been punctured, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Tuesday. The incident occurred 64 nautical miles northwest of Al Hodeidah, Yemen.
The master of the vessel reported that the ship was proceeding to its next port of call and that the crew was safe.
While UKMTO didn’t identify this vessel, reports have it that it is the oil tanker Cordelia Moon. The digital tracks of the Cordelia Moon show, according to Bloomberg, that the ship was returning to the Mediterranean, after delivering Russian oil to India recently.
In a second such incident on Tuesday, UKMTO received a report that a vessel was attacked by a missile at around 97 nautical miles northwest of Al Hodeidah. The ship sustained damage but all crew are reported safe, UKMTO said.
This vessel has been identified by security experts as the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Minoan Courage.
Today’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea are the first from the Houthis in weeks and come hours after Israel carried out air strikes on targets in Yemen this weekend.
According to official Israeli statements, the strikes in Yemen targeted the port city of Hodeidah in response to the recent Houthi attacks on Israeli targets. In Yemen, the city of Ras Isa was also a target, the BBC reported, noting the Israeli strikes targeted power plants in the country. The Yemeni health ministry said four people had died in the Israeli strikes and 29 were wounded.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com