{"id":116703,"date":"2024-02-25T08:20:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T13:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=116703"},"modified":"2024-02-25T08:20:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T13:20:28","slug":"oil-slick-from-cargo-ship-attacked-by-iranian-backed-houthis-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2024\/02\/25\/oil-slick-from-cargo-ship-attacked-by-iranian-backed-houthis-growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil-Slick From Cargo Ship Attacked by Iranian-Backed Houthis Growing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 CAIRO \u2014 <\/span>An attack by Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused a 29-kilometer (18-mile) oil slick, the U.S. military said Saturday. It also warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Rubymar<\/em>, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on Feb. 18 while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said.<\/p>\n

The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, CENTCOM said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The vessel suffered significant damage, which led to the slick, said the CENTCOM statement, warning that the ship’s cargo \u201ccould spill into the Red Sea and worsen this environmental disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Houthis continue to demonstrate disregard for the regional impact of their indiscriminate attacks, threatening the fishing industry, coastal communities and imports of food supplies,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press, relying on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the stricken vessel, reported Tuesday that the vessel was leaking oil in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s internationally recognized government Saturday called for other countries and maritime-protection organizations to quickly address the oil slick and avert \u201ca significant environmental disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the government, which sits in the southern city of Aden, said the vessel is heading toward the Hanish Islands, a Yemeni archipelago in the southern Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Separately, CENTCOM said it launched attacks on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to launch toward the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

It described the strikes as \u201cself-defense,\u201d saying that the missiles \u201cpresented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and to the U.S. Navy ships in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

CENTCOM didn\u2019t give further details. Houthi-run media, however, reported strikes by the U.S. and the U.K. on the district of Durayhimi in the Red Sea province of Hodeida.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military has in recent weeks launched waves of strikes on Houthi-held areas inside Yemen in response to the Houthis\u2019 attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters. They claim to be acting over Israel\u2019s war targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip, however they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe. The targeted vessels have included at least one with cargo for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 CAIRO \u2014 An attack by Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused a 29-kilometer (18-mile) oil slick, the U.S. military said Saturday. It also warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The\u00a0Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on Feb. 18 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116706,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116703\/revisions\/116706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}