A Greek-managed bulker has been damaged after coming under multiple Houthi missile attacks.
The Yemeni rebel group targeted the 82,300-dwt Laax (built 2012) with three projectiles on Tuesday, according to concurring reports.
The ship, which is managed by Grehel Shipmanagement, first issued a distress call via VHF Channel 16 in the morning as it was sailing 54 nautical miles (100 km) south-west of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
Reporting damage and water ingress in its cargo hold, the vessel was said by Ambrey Analytics to be listing.
About an hour after the initial hit, the master reported that a missile landed in the water near the vessel — according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and Africa Risk Compliance.
Security company Diaplous Group reported that a missile had exploded on the port side of the vessel.
“All accommodation windows were broken, while one crew member suffered a head injury from fragments,” the company added.
The wound requires medical assistance.
Cargo hold 6 is said to be “fully damaged” and taking on water. Holds 5 and 7 have also sustained severe damage, Diaplous said.
Managers at Piraeus-based Grehel did not respond to a request for comment.
Officials at the Greek merchant marine ministry are relaying information that the vessel is able to continue its journey to the United Arab Emirates. They had said that all seafarers on board were safe.
The vessel left Paranagua in Brazil last month, and was heading southbound in the Red Sea for Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday afternoon.
Vessel trackers showed it has made three stops on its journey in the Eastern Mediterranean. None were in Israel, the trade of which the Houthis are seeking to disrupt to force the Israeli army to stop its military crackdown in Gaza.
The Houthis have recently warned that they would step up their campaign, attacking ships in the Mediterranean as well as indiscriminately against vessels of companies they believe are calling in Israeli ports.
Vessels linked to Israel, Greek vessels have increasingly come under attack in recent weeks under such pretenses.
Insurance is provided by the Swedish Club. The attack comes against a background of increasing Houthi claims of ship attacks.
On Monday, the militia claimed to have set its sights on three vessels underway in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Their claims, however, have not been corroborated yet by any other military or maritime security source that usually reports such strikes.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said his group has “targeted” no fewer than three commercial vessels and two “American military destroyers”, as part of a campaign to disrupt the trade of Israel and its close Western allies.
Unconfirmed attacks
In a statement on its official website, the militia identified the merchant ships that it “carried out … joint operations against” as the “Larego Desert”, the “MSC Mechela” and the “Minerva Lisa”.
The only ships sailing in the region under similar names are Clearlake’s 49,700-dwt Largo Desert (built 2018), MSC’s 6,724-teu MSC Michaela (built 2002) and 103,800-dwt Minerva Lisa (built 2004), owned by Greek shipowner Andreas Martinos’ Minerva Marine.
None of these vessels is anywhere near the site of the latest attack.
No Western source, including UKMTO, has so far reported any incident against these vessels.
Equally uncorroborated is another pair of attacks that the Houthis claimed on 24 May, which included their alleged first strike against a vessel underway in the Mediterranean.
The last Houthi attack for which independent confirmation exists was on 23 May, against the 50,800-dwt Greek-controlled bulker Yannis (built 2009), when a missile landed off its port side in the Red Sea.
All of the Yannis’ crew members were safe and no damage was reported.
The group has launched about 100 strikes against commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden over the past six months and has displayed a capability to carry out long-distance drone strikes in the Indian Ocean.
