Details of at least one more Houthi-linked incident emerged from the Red Sea on Monday morning as attacks continued.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received a report earlier today from near Bab-el-Mandeb, 30 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Mokha port.
The master of an unnamed ship reported a possible explosion in the water many miles away.
TradeWinds understands the reporting vessel is Scorpio Tankers’ 110,000-dwt LR2 STI Goal (built 2016), but the target was another tanker.
Security company Diaplous later reported a Cayman Islands-flag tanker was attacked with multiple projectiles.
The vessel made a distress call and the US naval ship USS Carney responded and headed towards the vessel’s location.
This ship has now been named as the 20,000-dwt chemical tanker Swan Atlantic (built 2017).
Norwegian owner Inventor Chemical Tankers said the vessel was hit by an unidentified object and that none of its crew had been injured.
Oystein Elgan, its chief executive, told Reuters the ship’s water tank had been damaged in the attack but all systems were operating normally.
Danish operator Uni-Tankers said in a statement the crew had brought a small fire under control after a hit to its port side.
The ship is carrying vegetable oils.
Inventor Chemical Tankers has no ties to Israel, Elgan said.
The ship had left Yangbu Industrial Port in Saudi Arabia on 15 December and was bound for Port Reunion.
The Houthis said on the Telegram channel that attacks had been launched against the Swan Atlantic and the 19,224-teu boxship MSC Clara (built 2015).
The statement said the vessels were targeted by two aircraft after “their crews refused to respond to the calls of the Yemeni naval forces.”
“The Yemeni Armed Forces reassure all ships heading to ports worldwide, except Israeli ports, that they will not be harmed, and they are advised to keep their identification systems open,” it added.
MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co has been contacted for comment.
UKMTO said authorities were investigating.
Vessels were advised by the agency to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.
A spate of attacks on container ships at the end of last week caused hasty diversions from the major lines.
AP Moller-Maersk, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd said they were re-routing vessels away from the region temporarily.
These four owners carry 50% of global container volumes.
They were followed by Asian lines including HMM.
Fearnley Securities said incidents are rising continuously and tallied 18 to date.
‘Situation normal’
Meanwhile, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said on Sunday that the situation remained normal.
“Navigation through the Suez Canal flows normally as usual,” SCA chairman and managing director Admiral Osama Rabie wrote on X.
According to SCA figures, just 55 vessels went around southern Africa between 19 November and 17 December, compared with 2,128 that crossed Suez during the same period.
Rabie said the authority is “watching the ongoing tensions” in the Red Sea closely and examining their effect on traffic.
