FILE PHOTO: The British ship Rubymar, which sank in the Red Sea after being struck by an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by Yemeni Houthi militants, is seen in this aerial photo released on March 3, 2024. US Central Command/ Distribution via REUTERS | Photo credit: United States Central Command
A bulk carrier sank days after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, reportedly killing one sailor on board, authorities said early Wednesday. The second ship sank during the rebel campaign.
The sinking of the Tutor in the Red Sea marks what appears to be a new escalation by the Iran-backed Houthis in their campaign against shipping through the vital maritime corridor due to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack comes despite a months-long US-led campaign in the region that has seen the Navy face some of the most intense maritime fighting since World War II, with near-daily attacks on commercial ships and warships.
The Liberian-flagged Tutor, owned and operated by Greece, sank in the Red Sea, the British Army’s Maritime Trade Operations Center said in a warning to sailors in the region.
“Military authorities report that maritime debris and oil have been observed at the last reported location,” the UKMTO said. “The ship probably sank.”
The Houthis acknowledged the sinking, citing foreign reports in media they control. The U.S. military did not acknowledge the sinking or respond to requests for comment.
The Tutor was attacked by a bomb-carrying Houthi drone boat in the Red Sea about a week ago. John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said Monday that the attack killed “a crew member who was from the Philippines.” The Philippines has not yet acknowledged the death, but the man who had been aboard the Tutor has been missing for more than a week in the Red Sea, which is facing intense summer heat.
The use of a boat packed with explosives raised the specter of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, a suicide attack by al-Qaeda while the warship was in port in the Yemeni city of Aden, killing 17 people on board. The Cole is now part of a US Navy operation in the Red Sea led by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to try to stop the Houthi attacks, although the rebels continue their attacks.
The Houthis have launched more than 60 attacks on specific ships and fired other missiles and drones during their campaign, killing a total of four sailors. Since November, they have seized one ship and sunk two. A US-led air campaign has targeted the Houthis since January. A series of attacks on May 30 killed at least 16 people and injured 42 others, rebels say.
In March, the Belizean-flagged Rubymar was carrying a cargo of fertilizer that sank in the Red Sea after taking on water for days following a rebel attack.
The Houthis have continued their attacks on ships linked to Israel, the US or Britain. However, many of the ships they have attacked have little or no connection to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It started after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.
A recent report from the US Defense Intelligence Agency acknowledges that container shipping through the Red Sea has fallen by 90% since December as a result of the attacks. As much as 15% of the world’s maritime traffic flows through this corridor.
Meanwhile, the Houthis said on Wednesday that US-led airstrikes targeted Raymah, a Yemeni province under rebel control. The Houthi-controlled SABA news agency described the building of a local radio station as “completely destroyed” in the attacks. About a week earlier, the Houthis said similar attacks killed two people and wounded nine others, without saying whether the wounded were fighters or civilians.
The US military’s Central Command said in an earlier statement that it has destroyed eight Houthi drones in Yemen, while it also destroyed a Houthi drone in flight over the Gulf of Aden in the past day.
