Gulf Of Aden News

Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm starting in January with the Gaza ceasefire.The Houthis had launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.During that period, the group sank two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping…

Maersk will continue to divert vessels away from the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea and toward the southern tip of Africa despite Yemen's Houthis announcing they will curb their attacks on ships, the container shipping giant said on Friday.The Danish shipping company said the announcement by the Iran-backed militant group was "a very welcome step in the right direction towards stability and eventual normality for the global shipping industry".However, it said the security risk for commercial…

Vessels in the northern Gulf have received multiple VHF radio challenges, including demands to alter course, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Friday, adding they could be part of an Iranian military exercise.The UKMTO, which monitors marine security in the region, advised seafarers that vessels near Iranian waters may experience such VHF hailing during the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' exercise.Naval units from the Revolutionary Guards were conducting operations in the Gulf's Strait of Hormuz on Friday as part of the exercise…

Ships not linked to Israel could begin returning to the Red Sea in as little as two weeks, DP World's deputy chief executive said, adding that could see freight prices "come crashing down".Sea freight prices could drop "at least 20%, 25%" and that could happen over two to three months, Yuvraj Narayan told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting taking place in Davos, Switzerland.It is hard to predict a specific timeline, however, the deputy CEO and CFO of…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday re-designated Yemen's Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a "foreign terrorist organization", the White House said.The move will impose harsher economic penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the Iran-aligned group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against U.S. warships defending the critical maritime chokepoint.Proponents of the move say it is overdue, though some experts say it could have implications for anyone seen as aiding the Houthis…

The ever-worsening geopolitical situation is creating unprecedented challenges for the shipping sector and wider supply chain.An expanding shadow fleet, openly undertaking illegal Ship-To-Ship (STS) transfers of Russian oil and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), has compounded the longer-standing dark shipping problem that has emerged as a result of illegal activity (people, arms, drugs, contraband and fish smuggling), which not only threatens national security, but also the safety of vessels and heightens concerns regarding environmental disaster and supply chain disruption.In response…

This week at Maritime Reporter...The importance of safety on ro-ro vessels comes under the spotlight.The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch released its report into the engine room fire on board the ro-ro Stena Europe and concluded that the ship’s crew were insufficiently trained to inspect engine fuel systems and the temperature measuring equipment used by the crew to monitor the engine exhaust insulation did not effectively identify any hot spots.The Maritime and Coastguard…

Yemen's Houthis said on Monday that they targeted three ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, attacks they called part of their efforts to enforce a naval blockade on Israel.Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised address the vessels were targeted for attempting to approach ports bound for Israel.According to the latest data from LSEG, all three targeted vessels were Liberia-registered.One of the vessels, identified by the Houthis as bulk carrier Motaro, was last seen off Yemen's western coast in the Red Sea…

On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed an unusual email had landed in his personal inbox.The message, which was also sent to the manager's business email address, warned that one of the company's vessels travelling through the Red Sea was at risk of being attacked by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militia.The Greek-managed ship had violated a Houthi-imposed transit ban by docking at an Israeli port and would be "directly targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces in any area they deem appropriate…

Yemen's Houthi militants said on Saturday that they attacked a Liberia-flagged container vessel for a second time in the latest action against commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden.Yemeni military spokesperson Yahya Saree's televised statement did not specify when the latest attack on the MV Groton took place.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said in an advisory note that two missiles exploded on Friday in close proximity to the vessel, 130 nautical miles east of Yemen's Aden. It said the crew was safe.

As salvage operations began on an abandoned Greek-flagged oil tanker with deck fires still burning from Houthi rebel attacks, the EU's Red Sea naval mission Aspides said on Thursday that no oil spill has been detected.Yemen's Houthi militants carried out multiple assaults, including planting bombs on the already disabled 900-foot (274.2-meter) Sounion that is laden with about 1 million barrels of oil. On Wednesday, the Iran-aligned militants said they would allow salvage crews to tow the ship - which has been on fire since Aug.

The Greek-flagged crude oil tanker Sounion that was recently attacked by Yemen's Houthis is still on fire in the Red Sea and now appears to be leaking oil, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday.The Sounion was targeted last week by multiple projectiles off Yemen's port city of Hodeidah. The Houthis, who control Yemen's most populous regions, said they attacked it in the Red Sea, as the Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between…

Australia will assume command of the Combined Maritime Force’s Combined Task Force (CTF) 153 for six months from October.CTF 153 was established in April 2022 and focuses on international maritime security and capacity-building efforts in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden.Australia has been conducting maritime security operations in the Middle East under Operation MANITOU since 1990 and has previously commanded CTFs 150 and 152. This will be its first time for CTF 153.Chief of Joint Operations…

A Greek-flagged oil tanker carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude that was evacuated by its crew after being attacked in the Red Sea now poses an environmental hazard, the EU's Red Sea naval mission "Aspides" said on Thursday.Houthis, who control Yemen's most populous regions, said on Thursday that they attacked the Sounion oil tanker in the Red Sea, as the Iran-aligned group has been attacking ships in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.Sounion…

A merchant vessel reported being approached with the use of small arms fire in waters 92 nautical miles northeast of Eritrea's Massawa port in Red Sea waters adjacent to Yemen's coast, British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Thursday.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said shortly after that it received a sighting report of a small boat with armed persons onboard, operating in close proximity to a small coastal freighter, approximately 95 nautical miles northeast of Massawa.Authorities are investigating, UKMTO's advisory note added.

Two crude oil tanker ships reported coming under attack in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday, although neither reported damage, maritime security agencies said.The attempted assaults on those vessels, identified as the Liberia-flagged Delta Atlantica and the Panama-flagged On Phoenix, bear the hallmarks of Iran-aligned Houthi militant attacks on international cargo shipping in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks.

A U.S. federal court has charged three men, including two Iranian brothers and a Pakistani national, for an attempt to smuggle Iranian weapons that would be used by Houthi rebels for attacks on maritime shipping.According to the court documents, Shahab Mir’kazei and Yunus Mir’kazei work for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while Muhammad Pahlawan, is a Pakistani citizen who allegedly worked for the Mir’kazei brothers as the captain of a dhow used as a smuggling vessel.Pahlawan allegedly worked with Shahab to prepare the dhow for multiple smuggling voyages…

A crude oil tanker has reported four attacks off Yemen's port of Mokha during the last 24 hours, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Friday, and the vessel's manager said the ship and its crew were safe.Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea region since November in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.On Thursday, the captain of the Delta Blue tanker reported that…

U.S. military forces have struck at targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen in the past 24 hours, destroying two drones, a Houthi ground control station, and three anti-ship cruise missiles, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.Earlier, the Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had attacked a container ship in the Red Sea and two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday.CENTCOM said in a statement on the U.S strikes: "These weapons presented a clear and imminent threat to U.S.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Wednesday that it had targeted a ship identified as the Contship Ono in the Red Sea as well as two U.S. destroyers in the adjacent Gulf of Aden.The Houthi air force targeted U.S. destroyer Cole with a number of drones and the U.S.

A container vessel that was hit by Houthi militants off Yemen on Saturday in the first such attack in two weeks, has arrived safely in Djibouti and the strike caused no injuries or water ingress, its Greek manager said on Monday.Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Sunday that they targeted the Liberia-flagged MV Groton in the Gulf of Aden with ballistic missiles, claiming their first attack on shipping lanes since Israel carried out a retaliatory airstrike in Hodeidah port on July 20.The MV Groton was hit by a missile 60 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen…

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Sunday that it targeted a Liberia-flagged container vessel in the Gulf of Aden, claiming its first attack on shipping lanes since Israel carried out a retaliatory airstrike in Hodeidah port on July 20.Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement that the MV Groton was attacked by ballistic missiles.British maritime agency UKMTO and British security firm Ambrey said on Saturday that the vessel was targeted by a missile 125 nautical miles east of Yemen's port of Aden.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has informed that the Singapore-flagged container vessel LOBIVIA had been struck by unidentified projectiles while transiting the Gulf of Aden.The impact caused the fire onboard, which has been extinguished by the crew.According to MPA, all crew are accounted for and are safe and there are no Singaporeans onboard.LOBIVIA is moving under her own propulsion and has arrived at Berbera Port, Somalia to assess the damage and repairs needed.“MPA is in contact with the vessel manager to provide any assistance required.