Another ship is on fire after an attack by the Houthis off the coast of Yemen

Another cargo ship was attacked by the Houthis off the coast of Yemen, not far from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. As reported by the profile edition of The Maritime Executive, the container ship MSC Sky II, sailing under the Liberian flag, was attacked by two missiles at the same time. A fire broke out on the ship, the team is trying to deal with it.

The ship is located in the Gulf of Aden, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Attacks on merchant ships with the use of missiles and drones from the Yemeni side have not stopped for several months. On March 2, a damaged cargo ship carrying fertilizers sank off the coast of Yemen. Scientists fear that toxic fertilizers will cause an ecological disaster, fraught with the death of marine fauna where the dry cargo has sunk.

The activity of the Houthis is not limited to attacks on merchant ships. On March 3, it became known that as a result of their sabotage in the Gulf of Aden, several underwater high-speed data transmission cables, which depend on the functioning of the Internet in the region, were damaged.

About 12% of all commercial shipping in the world, including about 30% of all container traffic, is carried through the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. After the beginning of Houthi attacks on merchant ships, many shipping companies were forced to choose other routes, which significantly delayed and made transportation more expensive.

• The Islamic radical Houthi group “Ansar Allah” controls the northern part of Yemen, including part of the sea coast. The government created by them is not recognized by the vast majority of countries in the world, including Russia.
• At the end of last year, the Houthis announced that they were joining the war against Israel on the side of the Hamas group, recognized as a terrorist group in the United States and the European Union, and began to fire at commercial ships in the Red Sea. At the same time, dry cargoes and tankers that have nothing to do with Israel are being attacked. Yes, the now hot container ship MSC Sky II sails under the flag of Liberia and belongs to the Swiss cargo carrier MSC. Neither the vessel nor the company-owner have any connection with Israel.