A tanker carrying Russian oil and a second vessel were attacked by Houthi militia in the Red Sea on Monday, according to reports from three maritime agencies.
The news came as tugboats were trying to rescue a burning oil tanker that was attacked by the Iran-backed militia late last month.
UK Maritime Trade Operations said it received a report from the master of a ship traveling 70 nautical miles northwest of Saleef on Yemen’s Red Sea coast that it had been hit by two unknown projectiles and that a third explosion happened near the ship at 1:30 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time.
“There are no casualties on board and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call. Authorities are investigating,” the agency said.
A second UK-based maritime service, Ambrey, identified the vessel as a Panama-flagged oil tanker that might have been targeted as other ships owned by its parent company had visited Israeli ports — which is one of the Houthis’ grounds for staging such attacks.
Also on Monday, UKMTO reported that a drone struck a commercial ship at 6:30 a.m. GMT as it was traveling 58 nautical miles from the Yemeni city of Hodeidah. It said there were no reports of any casualties or damage to the ship and that it was “proceeding to its next port of call.”
Ambrey issued similar information about the incident.
The Joint Maritime Information Center identified the Panama-flagged tanker as the M/T Blue Lagoon I and said it was targeted by three ballistic missiles.
Two of the missiles struck the ship’s port side causing minor damage, while the third fell 50 meters to its stern, it said.
“The JMIC has confirmed that M/T Blue Lagoon I was subject to three ballistic missile attacks. All crew on board are safe (no injury reported). The vessel sustained minimal damage but did not require assistance,” it said.
According to Marinetraffic.com, the 278-meter-long Blue Lagoon I is a Panama-flagged shuttle tanker and was traveling from Russia through the Red Sea to an unnamed destination.
Since November, the Houthis have attacked multiple commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea and other shipping lanes off Yemen with missiles, drones and drone boats. The militia has said it targets only vessels that are bound for or have links to Israel in a bid to pressure the country into ending its war of aggression in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis have yet to take credit for the two attacks on Monday but such acknowledgments often come several hours or even days later.
The agencies’ reports came as two tugboats were en route to try and rescue the Sounion oil tanker, which has been engulfed in flames since being attacked in the Red Sea on Aug. 21, according to a Yemeni government official.
“We don’t know for certain if the two tugboats arrived at the site of the ship and started the operation but we are certain that they have left waters off Djibouti,” said the Aden-based official, who asked not to be named.
The Houthis attacked the Sounion, which was carrying nearly 1 million barrels of oil, first with small arms, projectiles and a drone boat before boarding it and detonating explosives. The incident, which poses a major threat to Red Sea ecology and shipping, was condemned around the world.
The militia said that tugboats and other vessels would begin trying to rescue the ship on Sunday, raising concerns that they may later seek to disrupt the operation and use it as a negotiating tool to win concessions from the international community. The group used similar tactics during the rescue operation for the Safter oil tanker off the coast of Yemen last year.
