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Houthis have targeted a Marshall-Islands flagged LPG tanker, dubbed Mado, in the Red Sea with naval missiles, Reuters reports, citing a Tuesday statement by the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea. The Houthis described the tanker as American, but shipping data sourced by Reuters shows the vessel is owned by Greece’s Naftomar Shipping & Trading. Mado was en route to Singapore from Saudi Arabia, the newswire writes.
Switch off your transponders, Marad says:The US Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (Marad) has issued an advisory to American-flagged vessels to turn off their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) transponders when transiting the Southern Red Sea, the Bab el Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, according to a statement. Switching off AIS transponders makes it more difficult for the group to track and score hits on vessels, the statement said.
Salvage operations for the Houthi-targeted Rubmyar and True Confidence are critical to preventing environmental damage, but can’t be carried out because the area is too unsafe, Reuters reports, citing statements from the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO). “We’re limited in what we can do in an area that is not safe and secure,” IMO secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said at a press conference in London. The Rubymar’s wreck carries some 21k tons of fertilizer in its hold, which can devastate marine ecosystems if released, with the stricken vessel’s 18-mile oil slick already causing considerable damage, the newswire said. Meanwhile, a salvage contract for the True Confidence was inked earlier this month, a spokesperson for the vessel’s operators told the newswire, but declined to provide further details citing security concerns.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Marshall Islands-registered shipping outfit Vishnu, which operates a crude oil tanker, dubbed Lady Sofia, according to a statement. OFAC asserts that the Lady Sofia was involved in “illicit shipments”, involving a covert ship-to-ship transfer with a sanctioned vessel, in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, and a Houthi financier, with both entities being previously sanctioned. The move sees Vishnu’s US-based assets blocked, while placing severe limits on US companies and entities engaging with Vishnu, the statement said.
