According to the Associated Press Jerusalem, on Monday, Yemen's Houthi rebels launched another missile attack on a container ship in the Red Sea, which is another blow against this key maritime international route after the attacks on the "Maersk Yorktown", "Mediterranean Veracruz" and "Mediterranean Darwin" on the 24th and 25th. According to unconfirmed reports, the ship is a container ship "CMA CGM Manta Ray" owned by CMA CGM.
According to the UKMTO's Office of Maritime Trade Action, the attack took place off the coast of Moka, Yemen, and ships sailing in the area are strongly advised to remain on high alert.
Ambrey, a private security company, revealed that in the attack, three missiles were aimed at a Maltese-flagged container ship heading from Djibouti to the port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
"The ship was targeted because its operators had trade with Israel," Ambrey said. ”
Cargo manifest and vessel tracking data showed that the target vessel was the Maltese-flagged container ship CMA CGM Manta Ray, which was scheduled to sail from Djibouti to Jeddah on Monday. But CMA CGM said it was still in Djibouti port at the time and therefore could not have been targeted.
AIS data from the vessel shows that it is expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia on May 1. The ship was built in 2008 with a capacity of 1,100 TEU, serving CMA CGM's Red Sea Express 2 (REX2) Red Sea Express, which was carrying out the 0RDUGE1MA voyage at the time of the incident, and had called at Shanghai, Ningbo, Taipei, Xiamen and Shekou ports in China.
The Houthis have not immediately acknowledged the attack, but given that it usually takes a few hours for the group to claim responsibility for the attack, it remains suspected that the Houthis carried out the attack. "The explosion occurred in the vicinity of a merchant ship and both the vessel and crew were safe," UKMTO said. ”
According to the U.S. Maritime Administration, the Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on ships since last November, successfully hijacking one ship and sinking another. However, Houthi attacks have slowed in recent weeks as the U.S.-led coalition has carried out airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Despite this, the threat of attacks has led to a significant reduction in shipping through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Most ships choose to take a longer detour to the Cape of Good Hope to avoid potential risks, which not only increases the transit time and cost, but also exacerbates the capacity constraints in the global shipping market.
Driven by the recovery of the global economy, especially the trade demand between Asia and Europe, Africa and South America has shown an increasing trend, and the factors of tight capacity and route bypass have further increased shipping costs and soared freight rates on major routes. Recently, due to the rush to ship before the holiday, the market has burst the phenomenon of lack of containers, and there are also freight forwarders who have obtained shipping spaces have been canceled or dumped.
U.S. officials speculated that the Houthis resumed their attacks last week, despite the fact that the Houthis may be running out of weapons after a U.S.-led strike and months of drone and missile interceptions. In the early hours of Sunday, U.S. forces successfully shot down five drones over the Red Sea, which "pose a direct threat to U.S., coalition and merchant ships in the region," according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.
On the other hand, the Houthis claimed on Saturday that they had shot down a US military's MQ-9 Reaper drone and released fragments of known parts of the drone as evidence. In response, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Brian McGary, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense, confirmed to the Associated Press on Saturday that "a US Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen" and said that an investigation was underway, but did not provide further details.