Houthis claim attack on MSC container ship, causing fire

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed an attack on a container ship as its crew battled a fire following an explosion.

The ship was about 91 miles southeast of the city of Aden when the blast occurred, the UK Navy said in an update. It followed an earlier explosion near the same vessel, they said, and no casualties have been reported.

A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi rebel group subsequently said they attacked the MSC Sky II. MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., which manages the vessel, declined to comment. 

Earlier, security company Ambrey Analytics said a Liberia-flagged container ship had been struck. That matches the description of the MSC Sky II, as does the location provided by the UK Navy’s update. The explosion damaged an accommodation block as well as one other part of the ship, Ambrey said, adding that firefighting efforts were underway. 

The Houthis have been consistently attacking merchant shipping in the region for months in protest against Israel’s war with Hamas and subsequent US and UK airstrikes on militants in the country. The result has been thousands of miles worth of diversions for swaths of the world’s merchant fleet as they seek to avoid the dangers of the waterway. 

Over the weekend, another merchant ship, which was hit previously, sank after about 2 weeks slowly taking on water at sea. It marked the first vessel the Houthis have successfully sunk in months of attacks.