Missiles exploded near a ship hauling Russian oil near Yemen, as merchant shipping in the region continues to face near-daily attacks from the country’s Houthi rebel group.
A Panama-flagged, India-affiliated ship which was carrying barrels from Russia, saw an explosion about 1 nautical mile away, according to intelligence firm Ambrey Analytics. The UK Navy said it received a report of two missiles exploding near an unidentified vessel.
Since mid-November, the Houthis have launched a string of attacks on vessels transiting the region in solidarity with Palestinians following the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas. The knock-on effect has seen swaths of global trade avoiding the waterway — from hundreds of container ships to tankers hauling millions of barrels of oil.
There were several other vessels nearby at the time of Friday’s explosions. The incident is the third since the attacks began that happened in the proximity of a ship previously calling at a Russian port. Analysts suspect that in each case, it has either been mistaken identity or that the Houthis were targeting other freighters.
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Last week, a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi militants told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that Russian and Chinese ships sailing through the Red Sea would be safe. The rebel group has said it will attack US, UK and Israel-linked ships in response to Israel’s war with Hamas and airstrikes on Yemen.
There was no damage to the ship during the incident, the UK Navy said.
One vessel in the region at the time of the attack that had been carrying Russian oil was the Achilles, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. It sails under the flag of Panama and was signaling “no link with Israel” in its destination field while passing through the Gulf of Aden. Many ships have taken to distancing themselves from the US, UK and Israel in a bid to avoid attack.