DUBAI (Reuters) -Oil products tanker Sounion was attacked by two small boats and struck by three projectiles in the Red Sea off Yemen on Wednesday, causing damage to the vessel but no injuries, the Greek shipping ministry and UK maritime agency UKMTO said.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched a series of attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Sounion reported being approached by two small craft with about 15 people on board and said there was a brief exchange of small arms fire during the incident 77 nautical miles (142 km) west of Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.
Sounion, a Greek-flagged vessel with 25 crew members, lost the ability to manoeuvre as a result of the attack, UKMTO added, and the Greek shipping ministry said in a statement the vessel had been damaged.
It also said there were no reports of injuries among the foreign crew – two Russians and the rest Filipinos.
British security firm Ambrey separately reported another incident in the same area, saying “the vessel was engaged by small arms fire from two skiffs in a previous incident 10NM further south”, it said, without naming the ship involved.
Delta Tankers, which operates the Sounion, was not immediately available for comment.
The attacks on shipping have drawn U.S. and British retaliatory strikes on Houthi territories and disrupted global trade as ship owners reroute vessels away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to sail the longer route around the southern tip of Africa.
(Reporting by Clauda Tanios and Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou in Athens;Editing by Jason Neely, Sharon Singleton and Helen Popper)
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