Missile scare near Saudi port of Yanbu as Houthis claim strike on Israeli-owned tanker
An Israeli-owned tanker sailing under the Liberian flag reported a near miss off Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast as Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed responsibility for a missile launch in the area, the latest flashpoint in a strategic waterway that carries a slice of the world’s trade.
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What happened off Yanbu
Maritime risk firm Ambrey said the vessel, identified by regional monitoring services as the Scarlet Ray, reported an explosion nearby southwest of Yanbu, a major Saudi port and energy hub. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center relayed that a commercial ship in the vicinity reported “a splash in close proximity from an unknown projectile and heard a loud bang.” The crew was unharmed and the ship continued on its journey, UKMTO said.
Within hours, Yemen’s Houthi movement said it had fired a missile at a Liberia-flagged, Israeli-owned tanker near Yanbu, casting the incident as part of its campaign to target shipping it associates with Israel. The group offered no evidence, and UKMTO did not attribute responsibility, saying authorities were investigating.
Ambrey, which tracks threats to shipping, assessed the Scarlet Ray as fitting the profile of vessels the Houthis have targeted since late 2023 because its ownership is publicly linked to Israel. The incident underscores how a complex, grinding conflict in Yemen continues to ripple far beyond the country’s borders—into one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Why the Red Sea matters
The Red Sea-Suez Canal route is the fast lane between Asia and Europe. Roughly 12% of global trade, including energy, cars, and foodstuffs, normally transits this corridor. Over the past year, Houthi attacks—using drones, anti-ship missiles, and occasionally explosive-laden boats—have forced many shipowners to take the long way around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. That detour can add weeks to a voyage and sharply increase costs for fuel, crews, and insurance. Some of those costs inevitably ripple into consumer prices and supply chains, from factory components to supermarket shelves.
Western navies, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, have responded with a stepped-up maritime security effort and airstrikes on Houthi launch sites in Yemen. Yet the threat persists, evolving and extending northward in bursts. Monday’s scare near Yanbu—far up the Red Sea coast, on a shoreline studded with petrochemical facilities—will likely heighten concerns among shipmasters who thought hugging the Saudi coast might be safer than transiting mid-sea.
A conflict layered onto a longer war
The Houthis, an Iran-aligned faction that seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition since 2015. A fragile lull in major ground fighting has held much of the past two years, even as peace talks sputter forward. But the maritime campaign has become the group’s way of projecting power and political messaging outward, tying its actions to the war in Gaza and asserting solidarity with Palestinians.
Saudi Arabia’s navy and coast guard regularly patrol the kingdom’s Red Sea coast, and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has previously intercepted suspected explosives-laden vessels launched from Houthi-held areas. The danger to commercial shipping, however, lies in the vastness of the sea and the difficulty of anticipating where the next projectile might arc from a rugged coastline into busy shipping lanes.
The immediate picture: limited damage, elevated risk
By all accounts so far, the Scarlet Ray was not struck and reported no injuries—good news after an anxious moment at sea. The lack of visible damage and the UKMTO’s careful phrasing point to an incident that may have been a near-miss or a splashdown from a failed or intercepted projectile.
Still, the message to shipowners and insurers is the same: risk remains dynamic and geographically broad. Vessels transiting the Red Sea have layered up defensive measures—sailing at higher speeds, running dark in some areas, embarking armed guards where permitted, and staying in close contact with maritime security centers. War-risk insurance premiums have climbed; routing decisions have turned into daily calculations weighing time, money, and danger.
Patterns and questions
What should we watch next? A few signals stand out:
- Attribution and forensics: Saudi and allied navies may release radar or debris evidence indicating what was fired and from where. That will help determine whether this was a stray missile, a test shot, or part of a coordinated salvo.
- Geographic spread: If incidents continue near Yanbu or further north, more operators may reroute even those legs once deemed safer, deepening the economic knock-on effects.
- Diplomatic ripples: Each attack complicates ceasefire and normalization conversations in the region—from Yemen talks to broader Gulf-Israel dynamics—by injecting risk at sea that no single actor fully controls.
- Rules of engagement: Western and regional navies have been expanding defensive patrols and strike responses. A strike that risks mass casualties or a major oil spill could trigger a sharper escalation.
Lives on the line
It’s easy to talk about shipping in tonnage and insurance points, but there are people aboard these vessels—engineers from Manila, helmsmen from Odesa, cooks from Mombasa—who live with the uncertainty of alarms and evasive maneuvers. Mariners who crossed these waters before the Suez Canal was dredged speak of the Red Sea’s blistering winds and sudden squalls; today’s crews navigate not only weather and mechanical demands, but the arc of a missile they may never see.
For now, the Scarlet Ray’s crew is safe, and the ship presses on. The UKMTO’s advisory remains cautious, the Houthis’ claim emphatic, and the seas around Yanbu a little more tense. As the world’s supply lines snake through the chokepoints of our era—from the Bab el-Mandeb to the Strait of Hormuz—we’re reminded how quickly distant conflicts can reach into everyday life. Will a car part cost more next quarter because a captain chose safety over speed? Will that decision avert a disaster we’ll never read about? Maritime security often lives in those quiet, consequential choices.
Authorities continue to investigate Monday’s incident. Shipmasters transiting the area are being urged to maintain a high state of alert, report suspicious activity to UKMTO, and follow guidance from coalition naval forces patrolling the Red Sea corridor.
In these waters, even a splash and a bang can change the calculus.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
