Yemen’s Houthi rebels have vowed to continue targeting British ships in the Red Sea after sinking the UK-owned Rubymar, the first vessel to be fully destroyed as part of their campaign over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed militia labelled Britain a ‘rogue state’ and blamed Rishi Sunak for their forces’ wrecking of the ship, saying his government should allow aid into Gaza if it wants to salvage the Rubymar. ‘Yemen will continue to sink more British ships, and any repercussions or other damages will be added to Britain’s bill,’ Hussein al-Ezzi, deputy foreign minister in the Houthi-led government, said in a post on X. ‘It is a rogue state that attacks Yemen and partners with America in sponsoring ongoing crimes against civilians in Gaza.’
There are now fears that the sinking of the ship could cause an ‘environmental catastrophe’, with its cargo of 21,000 tonnes of fertiliser threatening to leak and posing a major threat to marine life. The Houthis have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping since mid-November, claiming they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Their Red Sea attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa, and stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilise the wider Middle East.
The US and Britain began striking Houthi targets in Yemen in January in retaliation for the attacks on Red Sea shipping. Yesterday, the US military confirmed that the Belize-flagged Rubymar had sunk after being struck by an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by Yemeni Houthi militants on February 18. The attack occurred in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, 35 nautical miles south of Al Mukha, and the boat began ‘slowly taking on water’.
The crew of the cargo ship, which comes in at 171.6m long and 27m wide, was forced to ‘abandon the vessel’ following the attack. The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said yesterday that all crew are safe and ‘authorities are investigating.’ The US military’s Central Command said this morning that the Rubymar sank at 2.15am local time Saturday, and released an image of the vessel on its side as it was sinking. ‘The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel was carrying presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea,’ it said in a statement. ‘As the ship sinks it also presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway.’
Greenpeace today called for an urgent emergency response, saying the shipwreck presents an ‘imminent danger’. ‘Without immediate action, this situation could escalate into a major environmental crisis,’ said Julien Jreissati, programme director at Greenpeace MENA. The ship’s hull could be severely damaged, releasing the fertiliser and ‘triggering cascading effects throughout the food web’, he said. ‘This disruption could have far-reaching consequences, affecting various species that depend on these ecosystems and, in turn, potentially impacting the very livelihoods of coastal communities.’
Yemen’s exiled, internationally-recognised government, which has been backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, said the Rubymar sank late Friday as stormy weather took hold over the Red Sea. Prime minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak also labelled the ship’s sinking ‘an unprecedented environmental disaster.’ ‘It’s a new disaster for our country and our people,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Every day, we pay for the Houthi militia’s adventures, which were not stopped at plunging Yemen into the coup disaster and war.’
The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, since 2014, expelling the government. Its fought a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a stalemated war. The Iran-backed Houthis, who had claimed the ship sank almost instantly after the attack, did not immediately acknowledge the ship’s sinking. Many ships have already turned away from the Red Sea route, which a large portion of the world’s trade moves through. The Rubymar’s sinking could see further detours and higher insurance rates put on vessels plying the waterway – potentially driving up global inflation and affecting aid shipments to the region.
Earlier US forces struck and destroyed a Houthi surface-to-air missile in Yemen on Friday after deciding it posed an ‘imminent threat’ to American aircraft, the US Central Command in the Middle East announced. The Houthis, who control much of war-torn Yemen, have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea since November in a campaign they say is in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The US is spearheading a naval coalition to protect vessels in the vital waterway, and has also conducted air strikes in Houthi territory, both on its own and alongside Britain. On Friday afternoon, US ‘forces conducted a self-defense strike against one Iranian-backed Houthi surface-to-air missile that was prepared to launch,’ CENTCOM said in a statement, adding it had ‘determined (the missile) presented an imminent threat to US aircraft in the region.’
It went on to say that the Houthis on Friday night launched an anti-ship missile into the Red Sea, but ‘There was no impact or damage to any vessels.’ Last weekend, US and British forces carried out strikes against 18 Houthi targets across eight locations in Yemen, including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars and a helicopter, according to a joint statement.
One person was killed and eight wounded in the attacks, the Houthis’ official news agency said. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel-Hamas war. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo bound for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthi-controlled territory. Despite over a month of US-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks.
That includes the attack on the Rubymar and the downing of an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars. The Houthis insist their attacks will continue until Israel stops its combat operations in the Gaza Strip, which have enraged the wider Arab world and seen the Houthis gain international recognition. However, In recent days, there has been a slowdown in attacks. The reason for that remains clear.
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