Britain’s maritime safety agency, UKMTO, says a merchant ship sailing through the Red Sea has caught fire after being targeted by multiple projectiles off Yemen’s western coast.

The agency reported that armed men on small boats fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the unidentified vessel 51 nautical miles (94 kilometers) southwest of Yemen’s strategic port city of Hudaydah on Sunday.

“The vessel has been engaged by multiple small vessels who have opened fire with small arms and self-propelled grenades,” UKMTO said, adding that armed security teams on the ship have returned fire.

UKMTO further noted that the attack resulted in a fire onboard and that the incident was ongoing.

Ambrey, a UK-based maritime security group, also reported that the merchant vessel “was approached and attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea” before being attacked with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

It later said two drone boats struck the ship, while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. However, it comes as Yemen’s armed forces continue attacks in retaliation for the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

Since the onset of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the Yemeni forces have carried out scores of operations in support of the war-hit Gazans, striking targets throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in addition to targeting Israeli ships or vessels heading towards ports in the occupied territories.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced that they will continue their attacks until Israel halts its ground and aerial offensives in Gaza, where over 57,300 Palestinians have lost their lives since the war began on October 7, 2023.

The Yemeni forces have also conducted a series of operations against American and British vessels in response to deadly attacks by the US and the UK against their country.

This was the first such incident reported by the agencies in the area since mid-April. File photo

CAIRO — A ship came under attack in the Red Sea off the southwest coast of Yemen on Sunday, a British maritime agency and a security firm said, in an assault that one of them said bore the hallmarks of the Houthi militant group.

Maritime security sources said the vessel, which they identified as the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas, had taken on water after being hit by sea drones.

The ship was first targeted by gunfire and self-propelled grenades launched from eight small boats, with armed security on the ship returning fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and British maritime security firm Ambrey said in advisories.

Ambrey said in a separate advisory that the ship was later attacked by four Unmanned Surface Vehicles.

“Two of the USVs impacted the port side of the vessel, damaging the vessel’s cargo,” Ambrey added. UKMTO said the attack resulted in a fire onboard and that the incident was ongoing.

There were no reports of injuries among the crew, a source at maritime security company Diaplous said. The vessel’s operator was not immediately available for comment.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ambrey assessed the vessel “to meet the established Houthi target profile.”

It was the first such incident reported by the agencies in the area since mid-April. Tensions in the Middle East remain high over the war in Gaza and after the 12-day Israel-Iran war and airstrikes by the United States on Iranian nuclear sites in June.

Sunday’s attack occurred 51 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, the UKMTO and Ambrey said.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.

During that period, the group sank two ships, seized another and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute, prompting the US to intensify attacks on the group this year.

In May, President Donald Trump announced the US would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen, saying that the group had agreed to stop interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East.

Under the agreement, neither the US nor the Houthis would target the other, including US ships in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, Oman said in a statement at the time.

Later in June, Yemen’s Houthis threatened to target US ships in the Red Sea if Washington became involved in Israeli attacks on Iran. They have not specified whether they will follow through on their threat after the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities last month. — Reuters

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Crew members aboard a Liberian-flagged ship set ablaze by a series of attacks in the Red Sea abandoned the vessel Sunday night as it took on water, marking the first serious assault in the vital corridor for trade after a monthslong campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels there.

Suspicion for the attack on the Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas immediately fell on the Houthis, particularly as a security firm said it appeared bomb-carrying drone boats hit the ship after it was targeted by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The rebels’ media reported on the attack but did not claim it. It can take them hours or even days before they acknowledge an assault.

A renewed Houthi campaign against shipping could again draw in U.S. and Western forces to the area, particularly after President Donald Trump targeted the rebels in a major airstrike campaign.

Attack comes at a delicate time

And it comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most-sensitive atomic sites amid an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.

“It likely serves as a message that the Houthis continue to possess the capability and willingness to strike at strategic maritime targets regardless of diplomatic developments,” wrote Mohammad al-Basha, a Yemen analyst at the Basha Report risk advisory firm.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center first said that an armed security team on the unidentified vessel had returned fire against an initial attack and that the “situation is ongoing.” It described the attack as happening some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the country’s Houthi rebels.

“Authorities are investigating,” it said. It later said the ship was on fire after being “struck by unknown projectiles.”

Possibly a major escalation

Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, issued an alert saying that a merchant ship had been “attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea.”

Ambrey later said the ship also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could mark a major escalation. It said two drone boats struck the ship, while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship was taking on water and its crew had abandoned the vessel.

The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet referred questions to the military’s Central Command, which said it was aware of the incident without elaborating.

Moammar al-Eryani, the information minister for Yemen’s exiled government opposing the Houthis, identified the vessel attacked as the Magic Seas and blamed the rebels for the attack. The ship had been broadcasting it had an armed security team on board in the vicinity the attack took place and had been heading north.

“The attack also proves once again that the Houthis are merely a front for an Iranian scheme using Yemen as a platform to undermine regional and global stability, at a time when Tehran continues to arm the militia and provide it with military technology, including missiles, aircraft, drones, and sea mines,” al-Eryani wrote on the social platform X.

The Magic Seas’ owners did not respond to a request for comment.

Houthi attacks came over Israel-Hamas war

The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The group’s al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred, but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi. However, Ambrey said the vessel targeted met “the established Houthi target profile,” without elaborating.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis haven’t attacked a vessel, though they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel. On Sunday, the group claimed launching a missile at Israel which the Israeli military said it intercepted. Shipping through the Red Sea, while still lower than normal, has increased in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, a wider, decadelong war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country’s exiled government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, remains in a stalemate. The Yemeni Coast Guard, which is loyal to the exiled government, has engaged in a firefight with at least one vessel in the Red Sea in the past as well.

Pirates from Somalia also have operated in the region, though typically they’ve sought to capture vessels either to rob or ransom their crews. But neither the Yemeni Coast Guard nor the pirates have been known to use drone boats in their attacks.

The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has called on resistance groups across the West Asia region to stand firm against aggressive actions by Israel and the United States.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said the US and Israel were desperately trying to destroy faith and sacred symbols, pursuing occupation, resource theft, and human enslavement.

Despite the challenges and sacrifices ahead, he assured that the path of resistance will lead to freedom and dignity, the Yemeni leader stated.

“This is the best choice we have in the face of humiliation, disgrace, and surrender. This is what we seek for our nations; the path of righteousness in the face of American and Israeli aggression. Today, we reaffirm our steadfastness and our commitment to continue along the same path of Quranic and faithful teachings.”

Highlighting examples in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Yemen, he reaffirmed full support for the Palestinian cause, saying that confronting the Zionist project is a collective Muslim duty, promising no retreat despite pressure or warfare.

“The Zionist plan is an aggressive and destructive plan that targets the nation in its religion and worldly affairs. We will spare no effort in confronting this enemy with our brothers in al-Quds axis, the Jihad and Resistance, and the free people of the nation.”

He underscored the struggle as a moral obligation for all Muslims.

“It is our religious responsibility to confront the crimes of American and Israeli tyranny and to act against their corruption and falsehood. We must never accept submission to them or obedience to American and Israeli tyranny, because that leads to loss in this world and the hereafter.”

The Ansarullah leader also called on resistance groups across the region to stand firm against aggressive actions against Muslims by Israel and the United States.

“What the enemy is committing against this nation, starting with its genocide in Palestine, its violation of the sanctity of holy sites, and all forms of injustice and crime, as well as its actions in the Islamic world outside Palestine.”

The speech comes as thousands of gathered across Yemen to observe Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the third Shia Imam.

“Our battle against American and Israeli tyranny stems from the foundation of Imam Hussein’s revolution because the Americans and Israelis pose a threat to the nation by obliterating its religious identity, targeting its sanctities, and seeking to control, exclude, humiliate, and violate it,” he said.

As the genocidal war on Gaza intensified, the Yemenis implemented a strategic blockade on vital maritime routes, aiming to hinder the transportation of military supplies to Israel and to prompt the international community to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced that they will continue their attacks until Israel halts its ground and aerial offensives in Gaza, where over 57,400 Palestinians have lost their lives since the war began on October 7, 2023.