DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Missile attacks twice damaged a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned ship Tuesday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, with a private security firm saying radio traffic suggested the vessel took on water after being struck.
No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have launched a number of attacks targeting ships over Israel‘s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The first attack on the bulk carrier Laax happened off the port city of Hodeida in the southern Red Sea, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links it to the Gulf of Aden, according to the British military‘s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center. The vessel “sustained damage” in the assault and later reported an “impact in the water in close proximity to the vessel,” the UKMTO said.
“The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” the center said.
The private security firm Ambrey said the vessel reported by radio of having “sustained damage to the cargo hold and was taking on water.”
Late Tuesday night, the UKMTO reported the Laax “sustained further damage” in a second missile attack near Mokha in the Bab el-Mandeb.
The U.S. military’s Central Command also identified the targeted ship as the Laax. The vessel reported being headed to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
Grehel Ship Management of Piraeus, Greece, manages the Laax. A man who…
