New Delhi: A crude oil tanker carrying 25 Indian crew members was hit by a drone attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea on Sunday, the Indian Navy said. The tanker, MV SAIBABA, was not India-flagged as claimed by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) earlier, but owned by Gabon and registered in India, the navy clarified.
The attack was part of a series of assaults on commercial shipping by the Houthi rebels, who have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015. The US CENTCOM said that two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles and several one-way attack drones were fired from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on December 23, targeting international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea.
The US naval ship USS LABOON, which was patrolling the area as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, intercepted and shot down some of the drones, and responded to the distress calls from the attacked vessels. No injuries or damage were reported in the incident, the US CENTCOM said.
Another vessel, the M/V BLAAMANEN, a Norwegian-flagged chemical/oil tanker, reported a near miss of a drone attack. The US CENTCOM said that these attacks were the 14th and 15th on commercial shipping by the Houthi militants since October 17, and posed a threat to the safety and security of international maritime traffic.
The Houthi rebels have been escalating their attacks on shipping and US assets in the region, in retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war that broke out on October 7. The rebels have also seized a boat in a raid last month, and claimed responsibility for a drone strike on a Saudi oil facility in November.
India, which has a strong interest in the free movement of commercial shipping, has been monitoring the developments and participating in international efforts to ensure safe transit of ships in the Arabian Sea. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that India was supportive of the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, which aims to ramp up security in the Red Sea region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Naftali Bennett on Friday, and discussed the regional situation and the threats posed by terrorism and radicalism.
