Reporting indicates that a MV has been attacked offshore of Ras Isa Marine Terminal. The UKMTO has reportedly received reports that an MV has been attacked in position 15°13.0N 042°12.0E, approximately 23nm West of Ras Isa Marine Terminal late on Sunday 2 Jan.
The Royal Navy’s maritime information service has received reports of an attack on a vessel near Yemen’s port of Ras Isa and an investigation was being conducted.
In an advisory issued at 2150 GMT on Sunday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) – part of Britain’s Royal Navy – advised mariners to exercise extreme caution in the area.
It put the vessel’s position at approximately 23 nautical miles west of Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea.
The Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls most of northern Yemen hijacked a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo vessel engaged in “hostile acts” but which the Saudis said was carrying hospital equipment.
The ship was heading to the Saudi port of Jizan, just north of Yemen, from the Yemeni Red Sea Island of Socotra when it was attacked just before midnight on Sunday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, quoting coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Malki.
The last shipping incident near Ras Isa was in late 2019 when Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement briefly seized a Saudi-flagged ship and two South Korean vessels.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition that has been battling the Houthis for more than six years.
The alliance has accused the movement of attacking shipping in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest maritime lanes leading up to the Suez Canal.