Crew abandon vessel after Red Sea attack: Update

Adds Houthi comments paragraphs 3-5, 8

A ship was attacked 35 miles (56km) south of Mokha, Yemen on 18 February, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

The vessel was damaged by a nearby explosion at around 20:00 GMT, the vessel master reported. The crew have abandoned the ship and are safe, while military authorities remain on the scene to provide assistance, the UKMTO said.

The UKMTO did not identify the vessel involved. But the military spokesman of Yemen's Houthi militants Yahya Saree identified the vessel as the Rubymar, which he said the Houthis targeted "with a number of appropriate naval missiles."

"The ship suffered catastrophic damage and came to a complete halt," Saree said on 19 February. "As a result of the extensive damage that the ship suffered it is now at risk of… sinking in the Gulf of Aden. During the operation we made sure that the ship's crew exited safely."

The Rubymar is a Belize-flagged bulk carrier that was travelling from the Saudi port of Ras al-Khair in the Mideast Gulf to the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna, according to vessel tracking service FleetMon, which also showed that the vessel had "armed guards on board."

US Central Command said on 18 February that it had carried out five strikes on areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi militant group, including on an unmanned underwater vessel. This was after US forces struck more targets in Yemen during strikes over 16-17 February, following an attack on the Pollux Long Range 2 tanker in the Red Sea on 16 February. The Pollux was carrying Russian crude to India, according to Vortexa data.

But US and UK strikes against Houthi militants will not remove the threat against maritime navigation through the Red Sea, said the head of Yemen's Saudi-backed presidential council Rashad al-Alimi at the Munich Security Conference on 17 February. Partnership with his government to restore the state and retake Houthi-controlled areas will ensure regional security, he said.

Houthi forces "will not hesitate to take more military measures and carry out more qualitative operations against all hostile targets", Saree added, to defend Yemen and support Palestinians coming under bombardment by the Israeli military in its campaign against the Gaza-based Hamas militant group that carried out a cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October. "The operations… in the Red and Arab Seas will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted," Saree said.

At 04:00 GMT the Ice front-month April Brent crude contract was at $82.88/bl, lower by 59¢/bl from its settlement on 16 February when the contract ended 61¢/bl higher.

The Nymex front-month March crude contract was at $78.78/bl, down by 41¢/bl from its settlement on 16 February when the contract ended $1.16/bl higher.

By Prethika Nair and Nader Itayim