Crew abandons ship in most damaging strike yet by Yemen’s Houthis

Yemen’s Houthis have mounted one of their most damaging attacks yet on a commercial vessel after the Iran-backed group struck a bulk carrier and forced the crew to abandon ship.

The attack on the Rubymar, which was carrying cargo from the United Arab Emirates to Bulgaria, underlines the Houthis’ continuing threat to ships traversing the Red Sea despite a recent lull in successful strikes as a result of regular US and UK attacks on missile-launching sites.

The attack was one of three on foreign vessels over 24 hours. Another dry bulk carrier, the Sea Champion, faced two missile attacks on Monday in the Gulf of Aden. On Monday evening the Houthis claimed to have successfully attacked the dry bulk vessel Navis Fortuna.

All the strikes came hours after the US’s central military command (Centcom) said it had identified a submarine drone amid the Houthis’ military arsenal for the first time.

The UK’s Dubai-based Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the attack on the Rubymar took place 35 nautical miles south of al-Mukha in Yemen. The Houthis’ official spokesperson said they attacked the ship, which they described as British. They also said they shot down a US military drone.

LSS Sapu, an Athens-based security contractor that had four guards on board the Rubymar, said its staff and the 20 crew abandoned the ship after it suffered two missile strikes.

“The vessel was taking water,” the company said, adding that it had no information on the ship’s current condition. The Houthis had earlier said the vessel was in danger of sinking.

The damage was much the most serious inflicted in an attack by the Houthis, whose weapons have mostly either missed targeted ships or inflicted only minor damage. It is also the first reported direct hit by a Houthi weapon on a ship since a fire broke out on January 26 on the Marlin Luanda, a fuel tanker operating on behalf of commodities trader Trafigura.

In the second incident, UKMTO said the master of a ship had reported an explosion “in close proximity” to his vessel 100 nautical miles east of Aden. The Houthis later identified the vessel as the Sea Champion, a bulk carrier carrying corn from Argentina to Aden, a Yemeni port city that is held by the Houthis’ Saudi-backed opponents. Two hours later, the vessel faced a second attack in which UK maritime security firm Ambrey said a “projectile” had hit the water around 10 metres from the ship. The crew was unharmed.

In the third incident, UKMTO said it had received a report of an incident 90 nautical miles north of Djibouti. The Houthis identified the ship in that incident as the Navis Fortuna, another dry bulk carrier.

Owners of dry bulk ships, which carry non-containerised bulk commodities, have been reluctant to abandon the Red Sea route to the Suez Canal since the start of Houthi attacks in November. Data from London-based Clarksons has shown that arrivals of container ships around the mouth of the Red Sea have fallen more than 90 per cent since early December, while bulk carrier arrivals have only halved.

The Houthis say they are targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in support of Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Referring to a strike from the nearby Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yahya Sare’e, the Houthis’ spokesperson, said on Monday that the movement’s forces had shot down an “American plane” while it was “carrying out hostile missions”. Sare’e identified the downed aircraft as an MQ9, a type of unmanned aircraft known as a Reaper drone.

Centcom revealed it had destroyed an “unmanned underwater vessel” (UUV) during strikes on Saturday that also hit an unmanned surface vessel and three mobile anti-ship cruise missiles.

“This is the first observed Houthi employment of a UUV since attacks began,” Centcom said on Sunday.

The Rubymar flies the flag of Belize. Its registered owner is a company called Golden Adventure Shipping, with an address in the UK port of Southampton. It was not clear, however, who ultimately controlled the ship. Ambrey described it as “UK registered and Lebanon operated”.

The Sea Champion’s registered owner is New York-based MKM Chartering. The Navis Fortuna’s registered owner is Copenhagen-based Dania Ship Management.