A ship came under attack in the Red Sea on Sunday afternoon by several small boats that, according to a U.K. Maritime Trade Operations statement, fired small arms and rocket grenades, starting a fire on board.
The ship's "armed security team" fired back at the fleet of small ships in what turned into an hours-long exchange of fire. The incident was reported 51 nautical miles southwest of the Yemeni port of Hodeida.
An update released three hours after the first report stated that a "company security officer" had confirmed to the UKMTO that projectiles of an unknown definition struck the ship, causing a fire onboard. "Authorities are investigating," the statement added, without elaborating where said authorities were from.
In the early evening, the British military announced that the vessel was taking on water and the crew was preparing to abandon ship.
While Yemen's Houthis have been firing missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea, in stated solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, incidents of direct engagement with vessels is much more rare.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, whose scale led to the suspicion that the Houthis were behind it. However, while the Houthis acknowledged the attack in their media, they did not claim responsibility for carrying it out.
