Crew abandons ship attacked by Houthis in the Red Sea – DW – 06/24/2024

The British Navy reported that the crew of a merchant ship attacked on Sunday (06/23/2024) in the southern Red Sea has abandoned the ship, which is experiencing “uncontrollable flooding” due to an attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. He detailed that all members, including the captain, were rescued.

“It has been reported that a merchant ship has been flooded, which cannot be controlled. This forced the captain and crew to abandon ship. They have been rescued by a support vessel,” the British Navy’s Commercial Maritime Operations Unit (UKMTO) detailed in a statement.

The ship has been left in the Red Sea south of the coast of Yemen at the same coordinates where it received the first warning of the drone attack this morning, about 65 nautical miles from the Yemeni port city of Al Hodeida, according to the note.

Earlier in the day, “the captain reported that the ship had been hit by an unmanned aerial system (UAS), causing damage to the ship,” the British navy said.

The severity of the damage was great and prevented the crew from preventing water from entering the ship to proceed on the planned route, so the captain gave the order to abandon ship due to the possibility of sinking.

Insurgents claim responsibility for two attacks

Yemen’s Houthi rebels today claimed responsibility for attacks on two ships, one in the Red Sea and the other in the Indian Ocean.

“Naval forces of our (Houthi) armed forces carried out a second attack operation against the Transworld Navigator ship in the Red Sea using an unmanned boat, causing a direct hit on the ship,” Houthis military spokesman Yahya Sareya said in a statement.

The rebels attacked the same ship yesterday because the company that owns the ship, which sails under the Liberian flag, “violated Israel’s decision to ban its entry into the ports of the occupied Palestine”, a reference to Israel.

For these very reasons, the Houthis attacked the Stolt Sequoia ship in the Indian Ocean, a tanker that also sails under the Liberian flag, with an undetermined “number of winged missiles”, with which “the operation achieved its objectives.”

Jesse (EFE, AFP, Reuters)