DUBAI: A bulk carrier suffered minor damage on Thursday after being targeted by an explosive projectile some 100 nautical miles east of Yemen’s port city of Aden, British maritime security firm Ambrey said.

The damage was caused by shrapnel that caused a diesel leak, Ambrey said in its advisory note, making clear the explosion occurred some 100 miles away and did not directly impact the carrier. The crew members were unharm­­ed, it added.

Separately the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said on Thursday it had received a report of an explosion near a vessel some 85 nautical miles east of Aden.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Their targets have been vessels with commercial ties to the United States, Britain or Israel, shipping and insurance sources say. The attacks have prompted several companies to halt Red Sea journeys and opt for a longer and more expensive route around Africa, and US and British warplanes have carried out retaliatory strikes across Yemen.

The Houthi attacks have prompted some shipping companies to detour around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, which normally carries about 12 per cent of global maritime trade.

The UN Conference on Trade and Develop­ment warned late last month that the volume of commercial traffic passing through the Suez Canal had fallen more than 40 per cent in the previous two months.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2024