A ship was injured in an attack off the coast of Mokha, Yemen

The attack occurred about 23 nautical miles west of Mocha (Al Jazeera)

The British Maritime Trade Operations Authority announced that a ship was hit by a projectile off the coast of the Yemeni city of Mokha overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which led to the outbreak of a fire that was later extinguished, in the latest attack of its kind in the Red Sea.

The Authority - affiliated with the British Royal Forces - said in a statement today, Saturday, "We received a report that a ship was hit by an unspecified projectile about 23 nautical miles west of Mocha."

The statement added, "The ship's crew succeeded in extinguishing a fire that broke out as a result of it being hit by a projectile."

This British authority stated that it had received notification of the safety of the ship and its crew, and said that it was continuing to sail to its next stop, without mentioning information about the name of the ship or the entity to which it belongs.

Ship with different data

For its part, the company "Ambry" Maritime Security said that the attack targeted an oil tanker flying the Panama flag heading towards the port of New Mangalore in India, and its "registration data, including the name and operator" were changed last February.

Ambre added that the ship was registered in 2019 under the name “Union Maritime Ltd,” explaining that a ship belonging to this British company had previously been attacked by the Houthi group.

In support of the Palestinian resistance, the Houthi group has been targeting ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or transporting goods to and from Israel since the first weeks of the war on Gaza.

This group expanded its attacks to include American and British ships after the start of raids on Yemen last January.

The Houthis said that they had targeted more than 70 ships since the start of operations in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab, and the Gulf of Aden. They also recently announced the expansion of the scope of their operations to the Indian Ocean to prevent Israeli ships from sailing toward the Cape of Good Hope.

Source: Agencies