Indian vessel sinks after Red Sea attack off Yemen; all 14 crew rescued

An Indian vessel has sunk in the Red Sea after being attacked by an explosives-laden boat off Yemen’s western coast, with all 14 crew members rescued, Yemen’s government-aligned National Resistance Forces said on Tuesday.

The forces’ news agency, December 2, reported that the Faize Noore Oliya was attacked while sailing roughly 13 nautical miles south of Al Hudaydah, causing the vessel to sink. The agency did not describe the circumstances of the attack or identify who was responsible.

The Yemeni Navy and Coast Guard mounted a joint rescue operation that recovered all 14 people on board — 13 Indian sailors and one Yemeni national. No casualties were recorded, and the crew were moved to a safe location and given medical assistance.

The report did not specify the vessel’s flag or ownership, identifying it only as an Indian ship. No group had claimed responsibility as of 1415 GMT.

The National Resistance Forces are deployed along Yemen’s western coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait and are led by Tareq Saleh, a member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council. Al Hudaydah, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea close to major international shipping lanes, is controlled by the Houthis.

A widening threat to shipping

The sinking adds to a renewed round of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. On July 20 the Houthi group announced what it called a “naval blockade” on Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh warned it would respond firmly to any threat against its ships.

Pressure on the region’s shipping lanes has been building on two fronts. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to a fraction of pre-war levels, with the threat to tankers described last week as the worst since the Iran war began, even as talks aimed at reopening the strait got under way.

For Sri Lanka the disruption matters directly: the Bab al-Mandab and Hormuz corridors carry the fuel imports and container traffic that pass through the Port of Colombo, and sustained rerouting around southern Africa raises freight costs on the routes the island depends on.