Cargo ship hit by missile off Yemen

AFP | Dubai                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A Greek-owned cargo ship was hit by a missile off Yemen, a maritime risk management company said yesterday, following a string of attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen's Huthi rebels.

"A Malta-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier was reportedly targeted and impacted with a missile while transiting the southern Red Sea northbound," Ambrey said in an alert. The ship, which has visited Israel since the outbreak of war in Gaza and was headed to Suez, changed course and headed to port after the incident, Ambrey said.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis, who launched attacks on American vessels on Sunday and Monday following US and UK strikes on their territory last week. The incidents followed Friday's US and UK strikes on scores of sites in rebel-held Yemen in retaliation for the Red Sea attacks which have disrupted shipping in the vital waterway.

The Houthis have been targeting what they deemed Israeli-linked vessels but after Friday's strikes, they declared US and British interests "legitimate targets". United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a maritime security agency run by the British navy, also reported an "incident" in an area northwest of Saleef in Yemen, without giving further details.

Earlier, Qatar's prime minister said liquefied natural gas shipments would be affected by tensions in the Red Sea, and warned that strikes on Yemen risk aggravating the crisis. "LNG is... as any other merchant shipments. They will be affected by that," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the World Economic Forum in Davos, referring to the exchanges with the Huthis.

"There are alternative routes, those alternative routes are not more efficient, they're less efficient than the current route," he added. Rather than use the key route between Asia and European markets, which normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade, some shipping companies are now taking a major detour around southern Africa.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that at least five LNG vessels operated by Qatar had stopped en route to the Red Sea. "(Military intervention) will not bring an end for this, will not contain it. So the contrary, I think will create... a further escalation," Sheikh Mohammed said, referring to the tensions in the Red Sea.