An attack by Houthi militants targeted a commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden but apparently caused no damage, authorities said Saturday, in the latest strike on the shipping lane by the group.
The Greek-owned Tutor, a coal carrier, has reportedly sunk in the Red Sea a week after it came under attack from Yemen’s Houthis.
The Tutor was struck by missiles and an explosive-laden remote-controlled boat on June 12 off the Red Sea port of Hodeidah and had been taking on water, according to previous reports from UKMTO, the Houthis and other sources.
Last week. the Houthis also seriously damaged the Palau-flagged Ukrainian-owned and Polish-operated Verbena, which was loaded with timbre and on its way from Malaysia to Italy.
The Verbena’s crew abandoned the ship when they were unable to contain the fire sparked by the attacks, and it is now drifting in the Gulf of Aden and vulnerable to sinking or further assaults.
One crew member, believed to have been in the engine room at the time of the attacks, remains missing.
If confirmed, the Tutor would be the second ship sunk by the Houthis after the UK-owned Rubymar, which was carrying more than 41,000 tonnes of fertiliser, went down on March 2 about two weeks after being struck by Houthi missiles.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which monitors and tracks commercial shipping for owners and the military in the crucial waterway, said in an update on Tuesday that debris and oil had been sighted around the vessel’s last known location.
“The vessel is believed to have sunk in position 14″19’N 041″14’E,” UKMTO said, advising other ships to maintain caution in the area.
Despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi fighters, the once ragtag rebels have continued to threaten some of the world’s most vital shipping routes, drawing from an arsenal of increasingly advanced weapons to attack vessels in and around the Red Sea.
Just this month, Houthi militants sank one ship and set another ablaze. The fighters, operating on land and in the water, have launched swarms of drones at U.S. warships and deployed a remote-controlled boat packed with explosives, tactics and weapons that experts say are associated with the group’s patron, Iran.
The recent uptick in Houthi activity has underscored the group’s ability to pose a sustained threat, relying in part on a steady flow of Iranian arms and expertise both to withstand U.S. strikes and remain on the attack. The faltering U.S. efforts to halt Houthi operations and protect global shipping have also drawn scrutiny from Congress, where lawmakers say not enough is being done to establish deterrence.
“Their ability to replace whatever we destroy is unimpeded and our ability to interdict materiel coming into the country negligible,” said Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, claimed the attack Saturday night. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, identified the vessel targeted as the bulk carrier Transworld Navigator.
A US-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the militants say.
In March, the Belize-flagged Rubymar carrying fertilizer became the first to sink in the Red Sea after taking on water for days following a militant attack.
The Houthis have maintained that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the Israel-Hamas war.
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