A ship in the Red Sea that was set on fire by a string of strikes started to take on water on Sunday night as its crew got ready to evacuate. This was the first significant attack in the crucial commercial corridor following a months-long campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The Houthis were suspected of carrying out the attack right away, especially after a security firm reported that it seemed bomb-carrying drone boats struck the ship after it was targeted by small weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The attack was reported but not claimed by the rebels’ media. Before they admit to an assault, it may take them hours or even days.
U.S. and Western military may once more be drawn to the region by a fresh Houthi campaign against shipping, especially after President Donald Trump launched a significant airstrike campaign against the rebels.
Additionally, it comes at a delicate time in the Middle East, as Iran considers whether to resume nuclear program talks after American airstrikes targeted its most sensitive atomic sites during an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, and as a potential ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict looms.
The crisis is still ongoing, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center of the British military, which first reported that an armed security force on the unnamed vessel had retaliated against an initial attack. According to the report, the incident took place about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is controlled by the Houthi rebels.
It stated that authorities are looking into the matter. The ship was later reported to have caught fire after being hit by unidentified munitions.
A merchant ship was ambushed by eight skiffs while traveling north in the Red Sea, according to a warning from Ambrey, a private maritime security company.
A significant escalation may have occurred when Ambrey later claimed that drone boats carrying bombs had also assaulted the ship. According to the report, the ship was hit by two drone boats, and the armed guards on board destroyed two more.
The ship was taking on water, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center, and its crew was leaving the ship.
The 5th Fleet of the U.S. Navy, which is stationed in the Middle East, sent inquiries to the military’s Central Command, which acknowledged the event but provided no further details.
For hours, authorities were unable to identify the vessel. The Liberian-flagged bulk tanker Magic Seas, which had been broadcasting that it had an armed security team on board in the area where the incident occurred and had been traveling north, matched the description of the targeted vessel. A request for response from its owners was not answered.
Shipping has been targeted by Houthis in favor of Hamas.
In what the group’s leadership has called an attempt to halt Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthi rebels have begun attacking military and commercial ships in the area with missiles and drones.
The group’s covert head, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, gave a speech on the group’s al-Masirah satellite news channel, which recognized the attack but made no further comments. Ambrey, however, stated without providing further details that the targeted vessel “met the established Houthi target profile.”
The Houthis used drones and missiles to target around 100 merchant vessels between November 2023 and January 2025, sinking two of them and killing four crew. As a result, the Red Sea corridor, which normally sees $1 trillion worth of commodities pass through it each year, has seen a significant decline in trade.
Before the U.S. launched a massive offensive against the rebels in mid-March, the Houthis halted their attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire. Weeks later, that came to a stop, and the Houthis haven’t attacked a ship, despite continuing to launch sporadic missile attacks against Israel. The Israeli military says it intercepted a rocket that the organization claimed to have launched against Israel on Sunday.
A larger, ten-year conflict in Yemen between the Houthis and the exiled government, supported by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, is still at a standstill. At least one ship has previously been involved in a firefight with the Yemeni Coast Guard, which supports the exiled government, in the Red Sea.
Somalian pirates have also been active in the area, however usually they have tried to seize ships in order to rob or hold their crews hostage. However, drone boats have never been used in an attack by the pirates or the Yemeni Coast Guard.
