CAIRO (Reuters) -British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Sunday that a Belize-flagged, UK-registered and Lebanese-operated open hatch general cargo ship reported being under attack in Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it has received a report of an incident 35 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Al Mukha, and that an explosion in close proximity to the vessel had resulted in damage. All crew are safe, the agency said in an advisory note.
The ship was heading north during its journey from Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates to Varna, Bulgaria, when the attack occurred, Ambrey said in another note.
“The partially laden vessel briefly slowed from ten to six knots and deviated course, and contacted the Djiboutian Navy, before returning to her previous course and speed,” Ambrey added.
Yemen’s Houthi group has launched repeated drone and missile attacks against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait since mid-November, saying it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel wages war on Hamas.
(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Hatem Maher in Cairo; editing by Diane Craft)
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