Houthi militants have scored their first hit on a merchant ship in a little over a month, with a double strike on a tanker in the southern Red Sea.

The Royal Navy-led UK Maritime Trade Operations said the master of a vessel reported two attacks, including a missile strike that damaged the unidentified vessel.

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The ship was 14 nautical miles (26 km) off the Yemeni port of Mocha, also known as Al Mokha, when an explosion took place near the vessel, close enough for the crew to feel the blast.

The second attack involved what the master believed to have been two missiles and caused damage to the ship.

“Authorities are investigating,” the agency, also known as UKMTO, said.

Some maritime security experts said the missiles landed near the ship, rather than hitting it directly.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a post on X that the militant group targeted the 116,000-dwt crude tanker Andromeda Star (built 2009), which he described as a British vessel.

Maritime security firm Ambrey Analytics said three missiles were seen landing near the Panama-flagged, Seychelles-registered tanker, which was formerly UK-owned, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Ambrey described the ship as being “engaged in Russia-linked trade” on a voyage from Primorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India.

The Andromeda Star is owned by Seychelles-registered Algae Marine, which could not be reached for confirmation. The vessel was formerly in the fleet of UK-based Union Maritime, and ships linked to Britain are on the Houthi target list.

The vessel’s AIS transponder, which last showed its location earlier on Friday in the Red Sea off Mocha, was broadcasting that it has no connection to Israel, according to tracking data from VesselsValue.

Insurance coverage concerns

TradeWinds reported earlier on Friday that Danish maritime authorities have claimed that the Andromeda Star was without proper insurance coverage when it was involved in a 2 March collision, which caused no pollution as the vessel was ballasting in the Baltic Sea.

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Documents found on board the Andromeda Star after the collision suggested the tanker had protection and indemnity cover with Gard, Bloomberg reported, based on Danish Maritime Authority documents.

But Gard confirmed to TradeWinds that it was not insuring the ship at the time of the accident.

Contacting TradeWinds on Saturday, an official with Russian insurer Ingosstrakh dismissed that the ship was without cover and said, claiming to be citing from the report, that the Andromeda Star “had all of the required certifications, together with insurance coverage”.

Previous Houthi attacks

The last time that Houthis damaged a vessel was in March, when the US military said the Yemeni militant group launched five anti-ship ballistic missiles at the Chinese-controlled, 115,500-dwt Huang Pu (built 2009).

But recent days have seen several ships targetted by the Iranian-backed group.

On Thursday, a projectile landed near the 6,078-teu MSC Darwin VI (built 1999), a container ship operated by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.

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A day earlier, Houthis claimed an unsuccessful attack against the 2,500-teu Maersk Yorktown (built 2004). American military sources later confirmed that the US-flagged vessel was targeted.

On Friday, US Central Command said that an anti-ship ballistic missile was fired a day earlier from Houthi territory in Yemen into the Gulf of Aden, causing no injury or damage to vessels in the area.

The command, which coordinates armed forces in the region, also said that on Thursday it destroyed an unmanned surface vessel and an unmanned aerial vehicle.

“These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels,” the military unit said on X.

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