BTN News: The Houthi camp has escalated in a worrisome way by increasing the navigation-related targeting of merchant tones in the Middle East, resulting in considerable damage and losses. The Greek-controlled kamsarmax The Tutor, died last week from earlier injuries in an attack that killed a crewmember. The incident, which the UK Maritime Trade Operations center reported as a sea drone strike that punctured the vessel’s engine room, caused the vessel to sink in the Red Sea.
Another hit on a Ukrainian-owned general cargo ship, Verbena from Donbasstransitservice led the vessel to a fire emergency after receiving three hits. The attack called for the immediate medical evacuation of a crew member who sustained serious injury by the American military personnel in the side area. Events being as they are, the Verbena’s fate remains as unclear as ever after all of this.
The past week also represented a significant escalation by the Houthis, with the latest round of strikes the most frequent and the most accurate so far. Rubymar had shared a similar fate in March when it was sunk in the Red Sea through missile strikes on 21 February, registering the first casualty of the current campaign.
All these raised alarm bells and posed a new dimension of maritime security risk in the area for both naval authorities and shipowning companies. The reason the occurrence has brought on to sightings of sea-borne debris and oil, motive an additional headaches for maintaining safe direction in those important waters.
Such attacks are posing major threats to maritime trade of the region are worrying the global community. Measures to protect the safety of seafarers and vessels sailing through these waters of interest and into the face of open hostility remain ongoing.
