The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations monitor on Sunday said that it received a report that light vessels had opened fire with small arms and self-propelled grenades.
Published reports identified the vessel as the Magic Seas, a Liberian-flagged bulk tanker, and that the crew of 23 was abandoning ship after it was set afire by the attacks and sinking.
The UKMTO said that armed security aboard the merchant vessel returned fire during the attack, which occurred 51 nautical miles southwest of Hudaydah, Yemen.
Houthi rebels based in Yemen from 2023-2024 carried out attacks on merchant ships they claimed were connected to Israel, sinking two ships and killing four sailors.
The attacks greatly reduced shipping through the Suez Canal-Red Sea route as major container carriers elected to divert vessels away from the region and on longer voyages around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
France’s CMA CGM in late June became the first carrier to return to the Suez Canal with an ultra-large container ship, the 15,536-TEU CMA CGM Osiris.
Houthi media and the U.S. armed forces were aware of the attack but offered no details.
The incident comes just after the Trump administration said it backed ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.
The U.S. earlier this year mounted an intense bombing campaign against Houthi targets inside Yemen. No vessels were targeted in that time, but the Houthis have continued to launch missiles directly at Israel.
This article was updated July 6 to correct that the U.S. is backing ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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