The crew of a British cargo vessel was forced to abandon ship as the boat threatened to sink from a Houthi missile strike near the Red Sea on Monday — one of the most damaging attacks by the terrorists to date.
The Iran-backed Yemen rebel group claimed to also have taken out a US drone Monday in the Yemeni seaside city of Hodeidah, but the reputed attack was not immediately confirmed.
The targeted UK-registered vessel the Rubymar — which was sailing under the flag of Belize and has previously been used as a grain carrier for Ukraine — was struck by two missiles in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, between 9:30 and 10:45 p.m. local time, reports said.
“We know she was taking in water,” the ship’s security company said, adding that the crew safely abandoned the badly damaged vessel after an explosion was reported onboard.
The crew disembarked from their listing ship onto a merchant vessel in the area and were taken to a nearby port, the New York Times said.
The Houthis have been hammering maritime traffic in the region since fellow Palestinian terror group Hamas launched its Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, sparking the Gaza war, but have rarely wreaked such damage.
The Houthis, allies of Hamas, were quick to crow about their terror achievement Monday.
“The ship suffered catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt’’ and is “now at risk of potentially sinking,’’ terrorist Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a statement.
The US and its allies have been battling back against such terror strikes by taking out missiles and drones — including the first underwater unmanned enemy vessel over the weekend.
The Rubymar was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Bulgaria when it was struck.
UK officials quickly condemned “reckless attack” on the ship and said allied forces were “already on the scene,” the BBC reported.
With Post wires
