DUBAI: A ship caught fire Saturday in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen after being struck by a projectile, the British military said, with one report suggesting its crew was preparing to abandon the vessel.
The incident comes as Yemen’s Houthi militants have been attacking ships through the Red Sea corridor. However, the militants did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days to do so.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued an alert about the vessel, describing the incident as taking place some 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of Aden.
“A vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile, resulting with a fire,” the UKMTO said. “Authorities are investigating.”
The maritime security firm Ambrey described the ship as a Cameroon-flagged tanker that was “en route from Sohar, Oman, to Djibouti.” It said radio traffic suggested the crew was preparing to abandon ship and a search-and-rescue effort was underway.
Details offered about the ship appeared to correspond to the Falcon, a Cameroon-flagged tanker that carries liquefied petroleum gas. The Falcon previously had been identified by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based pressure group, as operating allegedly in an Iranian “ghost fleet” of ships moving their oil products in the high seas despite international sanctions. The ship’s owners and operators, listed as being in India, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Houthis have gained international prominence during the Israel-Hamas war over their attacks on shipping and Israel, which they said were aimed at forcing Israel to stop fighting. Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, no attacks have been claimed by the militant group.
The Houthi campaign against shipping has killed at least nine mariners and seen four ships sunk. It upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war. The militants’ most recent attack hit the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht on Sept. 29, killing one crew member on board and wounding another.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and taken dozens of workers at United Nations agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence they were spies — something fiercely denied by the world body and others.
