Shipping on alert after maritime ambush

•  JO HARPER

WASHINGTON: Amajor escalation in maritime attacks in the Middle East unfolded this weekend when ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships Sunday in the Red Sea. A week earlier, the Iran-backed Houthis seized a Japanese-operated cargo ship in the Red Sea, with armed men jumping onto its deck from a helicopter before hoisting Palestinian and Yemeni flags. The Marine Traffic tracking site said the empty car carrier, which was owned by Israeli businessman Abraham Ungar, left Korfez in Turkey and was on its way to Pipavav in India when it went offline southwest of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The ship’s operator, Japan’s Nippon Yusen, said it had set up a taskforce to collect information on the 25-person crew, who are from the Philippines, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania and Mexico. Though no Israelis were on board, Israel called the incident an “Iranian act of terrorism” and said it would have “grave consequences” for international maritime security. In the months before the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, the number of hijackings had been increasing after a lull in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, mainly due to US-Iranian tensions and restrictions on the trade of Iranian oil.

“This is part of a tit-for-tat war between the US, UK and Iran, and could draw other countries in. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy want to influence the geopolitical scene and show they control the Straits of Hormuz,” said Dimitris Maniatis, COO of private maritime security company Seagull Maritime.

In April and May, Iranian naval forces seized three internationally flagged oil tankers in response to US seizures of tankers allegedly carrying Iranian oil as part of sanctions enforcement operations. In another incident on November 26, the US Navy reportedly captured five pirates who had attempted to hijack the Central Park, a tanker run by an Israeli businessman, in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center noted 115 incidents of global piracy and armed robbery attacks in 2022, less than the previous year. Half of the 2022 attacks on ships took place in Southeast Asia, with the Straits of Singapore particularly vulnerable. Other areas of concern include South and Central America and the seas around Nigeria, Ghana and Angola.

“We expect to see this happening again. They showed they can do it, and they seek media attention. They have info on Israeli ships. They know what they are doing. Israeli-connected vessels will be targets. It’s very simple to track,” said Maniatis.

In fact, Houthi rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said the group was looking for Israeli vessels in the Red Sea — even those without Israeli flags. “This is nothing new, it’s only big news because the Houthis did it,” said Maniatis. “From 2019 onward in the Strait of Hormuz the same tactics were used by the Iranians. Houthis are a proxy for Tehran against Israel and others.” Houthis control much of the western Yemen coast and overlook a large stretch of the Red Sea and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, some of the world’s busiest waterways. Still, they need support.

“Houthis have not resorted to hijackings in recent years. In the Red Sea and the Gulf Aden, the main risk facing commercial vessels remains piracy, of an opportunistic, criminal nature,” said Harish Natarajan, head of economic analysis at AKE International, a security risk consultancy in London.