Houthi projectiles exploded close to a tanker controlled by Eastern Mediterranean Maritime (Eastmed) in the Red Sea on Saturday, in the latest attempt to target a vessel managed by the Greek firm.
The 110,000-dwt Abliani (built 2015) was not the only Eastmed ship the Yemeni militia claimed to have attacked over the weekend.
Its military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the company’s 63,300-dwt bulker Maina (built 2016) was “targeted twice”, in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
Saree did not provide details on how the alleged strikes against the vessel were conducted.
Earlier on Saturday, however, maritime security firm Diaplous described an incident involving a ship that fits the description of the Abliani.
According to Diaplous, an unidentified Malta-flagged tanker issued a distress call after suffering an attack by drones and rockets about 67 nautical miles (124 km) northwest of Jizan in Saudi Arabia.
“An unidentified aerial vehicle exploded approximately 15 metres off the port side of the vessel,” Diaplous said.
The ship, however, seemed to have sustained no damage.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations separately reported an incident on Saturday.
It said it received information about an incident further south in the Red Sea, 48 miles southwest of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, in which a master “witnessed an explosion a significant distance from the vessel”.
The initially unidentified ship later turned out to have been AW Shipping’s 86,000-cbm LPG carrier Al Salam (built 2022). The vessel and crew are safe and proceeding to their next port of call.
No independent confirmation exists of a third strike attempt claimed by the Houthis on 1 June, against the 210,100-cbm Al Oraiq (built 2008), far from Yemen in the open Indian Ocean.
If confirmed, this would be the first known case of the Houthis attacking an LNG vessel of that size controlled by Qatargas.
‘Very risky’
Alleged or real attacks against Eastmed ships have been frequent, by contrast — to the point of prompting the company’s Greek owner, Thanassis Martinos, to tell TradeWinds on Friday that “the transit of the Red Sea has become very risky and the Houthis are efficient and sophisticated”.
Greek ships, and Eastmed in particular, have been increasingly drawing the Houthis’ attention since they launched the “fourth phase” of their campaign against shipping a few weeks ago, threatening to target every ship of a company they believe has traded in Israel.
Over the past four weeks, the Houthis carried out confirmed attacks against a pair of Eastmed bulkers — the 60,400-dwt Cyclades (built 2017) and 50,800-dwt Yannis (built 2009) that saw a missile landing off its port side.
On 31 May, the rebels also claimed to have fired missiles against Eastmed’s 63,300-dwt Morea (built 2015) and 60,400-dwt Sealady (built 2016). Neither of these claimed attacks has been independently confirmed, and Martinos denied any “visible attack or damage” on the two bulkers.
The Houthis indeed occasionally exaggerate the reach and impact of their strikes.
On Saturday, for instance, Saree claimed for the second day in a row that his forces launched drones and missiles against the giant American warship USS Dwight Eisenhower somewhere “north of the Red Sea”.
US military authorities, however, have not reported any incident around the aircraft carrier. The only Houthi action that US Central Command acknowledged in a statement early on Sunday was the launching of two missiles from Yemeni territory against the warship USS Gravely, which the US Navy managed to destroy in mid-flight.
The fact that the Houthis often oversell their operations, however, does not mean they are incapable of inflicting real and painful damage.
They have already launched about 100 actual strikes against commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden over the past six months and displayed a capability to carry out long-distance drone strikes in the Indian Ocean.
Carried out via drones, missiles, attempted boardings and one hijacking, the strikes have resulted in the death of three seafarers and 10 Houthi fighters, the sinking of the 32,200-dwt bulker Rubymar (built 1997) and the abduction of 25 crew members on the 5,100-ceu Galaxy Leader (built 2002).
At the same time, several Yemenis have been killed by air strikes carried out by US and UK forces in Houthi territory. Saree claimed on Friday that 16 people died in the West’s latest air strikes against Hodeidah and Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.
