Ship attacked in the Red Sea is taking on water, UK military says

Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, issued an alert saying that a merchant ship had been “attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea.”

By The Associated Press

A ship set ablaze by a series of attacks in the Red Sea is taking on water and the crew is preparing to abandon the vessel, the British military said Sunday.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which include gunfire, rocket-propelled grenades and potentially drone boats being used.

However, the scale of the attack led to the suspicion that Yemen’s Houthi rebels carried it out. The rebels had acknowledged the attack happened in their media, but have not claimed carrying out the assault.

The rebels have launched a series of attacks on ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, though they’ve refrained for months from attacking ships.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center made the announcement about the stricken vessel.

Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, issued an alert saying that a merchant ship had been “attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea.” It said it believed the attack was ongoing.

Ambrey later said the ship also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could mark a major escalation in the region. It said two drone boats struck the ship, while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board.

The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet referred questions to the military’s Central Command, which said it was aware of the incident without elaborating.

The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The group’s al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred, but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

However, Ambrey said the vessel targeted met “the established Houthi target profile,” without elaborating.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors.

That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis haven’t attacked a vessel, though they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel.

On Sunday, the group claimed launching a missile at Israel which the Israeli military said it intercepted.

Meanwhile, a wider, decadelong war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country’s exiled government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, remains in a stalemate.

The Yemeni Coast Guard, which is loyal to the exiled government, has engaged in a firefight with at least one vessel in the Red Sea in the past as well.

Pirates from Somalia also have operated in the region, though typically they’ve sought to capture vessels either to rob or ransom their crews. But neither the Yemeni Coast Guard nor the pirates have been known to use drone boats in their attacks.