UK maritime trade authority says merchant vessel attacked off Yemeni coast

The UK’s maritime trade authority says that a merchant ship was attacked on Friday night off the coast of Yemen.

2 min read

05 December, 2020

The ship was attacked off the coast of Yemen [Getty File Image]

A vessel was attacked off the coast of war-torn Yemen, a UK-based maritime organisation said on Saturday, days after an explosion rocked an oil tanker docked at a Saudi port.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), citing reports from ships in the vicinity, said it was aware of an attack late on Friday against a merchant vessel, without giving further details.

It later released a statement saying the incident was over.

"Incident is now complete. Vessel and crew are safe," the statement said.

The report comes 10 days after a Greek-operated vessel, which was docked at Saudi Arabia's port of Shuqaiq, was rocked by an explosion in an attack that the Saudi-led coalition operating in Yemen blamed on Houthi rebels.

The November 25 blast on the Maltese-flagged Agrari tanker followed a string of attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Saudi oil infrastructure, highlighting the growing perils of a five-year military campaign led by the kingdom in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying sophisticated weapons to the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies.

Saudi Arabia is stuck in a military quagmire in Yemen, which has been locked in conflict since Houthi rebels took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014 and went on to seize much of the north.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to support the internationally recognised government, but the conflict that has shown no signs of abating.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian disaster.