Toby Chopra News

Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they targeted the MSC Orion container ship in a drone attack in the Indian Ocean as part of their ongoing campaign against international shipping in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel's military actions in Gaza.MSC Orion was sailing between the ports in Sines, Portugal and Salalah, Oman, according to LSEG data.Reuters found conflicting information about the registered owner of the MSC Orion. According to LSEG and other data providers, the ship is owned by Zodiac Maritime…

A vessel that reported on Monday an explosion in its proximity, 54 nautical miles northwest of Yemen's Mokha, has sustained damage but the ship and crew are safe and proceeding to next port of call, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said.British maritime security firm Ambrey has said that a Malta-flagged container ship in the same location was reportedly targeted with three missiles while on route from Djibouti to the Saudi city of Jeddah.Iran-backed Houthi militants have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea

At least 22 people drowned, including seven children, when a rubber boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey's northwest province of Canakkale, the local governor's office said on Friday, adding that search and rescue efforts continued.In a statement, the Canakkale governor's office said that two people had been rescued by the coast guard and two others had survived "by their own means" after the boat capsized.It said a plane, two helicopters, and a total of 18 vessels from the coast guard and other rescue authorities were involved in the search and rescue efforts…

Denmark on Monday sent a frigate to the Red Sea, where it will participate in a U.S.-led coalition to safeguard commercial traffic against attacks by Yemen's Houthi militants.The Iran-aligned Houthi have launched waves of exploding drones and missiles at commercial and navy vessels since Nov. 19, in response to Israel's military operations in Gaza.In response, shipping firms have since December diverted hundreds of vessels around southern Africa's Cape of Good Hope, a journey that takes 10-14 days longer and is more costly than the passage via the Red Sea and Suez Canal.Denmark…

Maersk said explosions nearby forced two ships operated by its U.S. subsidiary and carrying U.S. military supplies to turn around when they were transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen, accompanied by the U.S. Navy."While en route, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the U.S. Navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles," Maersk said in a statement, adding it was suspending Red Sea transits by vessels of the U.S. subsidiary.A spokesperson for Yemen's Houthi military forces said they fired ballistic missiles at several U.S. warships that were protecting two U.S.

U.S. Central Command forces on Friday conducted strikes against three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch, the U.S. military said on X, formerly called Twitter."U.S. forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region. U.S. forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense," the U.S.

Yemen's Houthi movement will expand its targets in the Red Sea region to include U.S. ships, an official from the Iran-allied group said on Monday, as it vowed to keep up attacks after U.S. and British strikes on its sites in Yemen.Attacks by the Houthis on ships in area since November have impacted companies and alarmed major powers in an escalation of Israel's more than three-month war with Hamas militants in Gaza. The group says it is acting in solidarity with Palestinians.British…

Houthi forces in Yemen struck the U.S.-owned and operated dry bulk ship Gibraltar Eagle with an anti-ship ballistic missile, U.S Central Command said on Monday, although there were no reports of injuries or significant damage.The vessel's U.S.-based operator Eagle Bulk Shipping said that it was hit by an "unidentified projectile" while sailing 100 miles off the Gulf of Aden and suffered limited damage to its cargo hold, and no seafarers were injured."As a result of the impact…

Iran seized a tanker with Iraqi crude destined for Turkey on Thursday in retaliation for the confiscation last year of the same vessel and its oil by the U.S., Iranian state media reported, a move likely to stoke regional tensions.The seizure of the Marshall Islands-flagged St Nikolas coincides with weeks of attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militias targeting Red Sea shipping routes."After the theft of Iranian oil by the United States last year, St Nikolas tanker was seized by Iran's Navy this morning with a judicial order ...

India's defense ministry is providing protective escorts to Indian containerships in the high seas around the Red Sea as the security situation there continues to simmer, a government source said on Friday.Containers could face delays of 14 days in their turnaround time due to taking a longer sea route around Africa which is also causing higher transport and insurance costs, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added."The cost of freight & insurance has risen due to ships being compelled to avoid the region & take a longer route.

The leader of Yemen's Houthis warned on Wednesday they would strike U.S. warships if the Iranian-backed militia was targeted by Washington, which this week set up a multinational force to counter Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.The Houthis, which control vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, have since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea, attacks it says respond to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.The U.S.-led security initiative will see Washington and ten other…

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is deploying two Royal Navy ships and surveillance aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and reinforce regional stability, his Downing Street office said on Thursday.The military package, which includes P8 surveillance planes, other surveillance assets, two auxiliary ships, three Merlin helicopters and a company of Royal Marines, will be on standby in the region to provide "practical support to Israel ...

A Suez Canal tugboat sank on Saturday and one of its crew was missing after it collided with a Hong Kong-flagged LPG tanker though shipping traffic in the strategically important waterway was largely unaffected, the canal authority said.Convoys of ships passing through the canal from the north were not affected, while the passage of ships travelling from the south returned to normal by about midnight on Saturday, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement.The tanker, Chinagas Legend…

A burning car carrier was drifting off the Dutch coast on Thursday, the coastguard said, a day after the Panamanian-registered ship caught alight, causing the death of an Indian crew member and injuring several others.The 199-metre (653 ft) Fremantle Highway caught fire overnight Tuesday and several of the 23 crew jumped overboard to escape the flames and were rescued by the Dutch coastguard.The coastguard said on its website Thursday the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying "the fire started in the battery o

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Monday that a Chinese carrier group led by the Shandong was about 120 nautical miles off the southeast of the island's coast, the same ship that took part in China's war games around the island earlier this month.Taiwan previously reported that the Shandong, commissioned in 2019, had sailed into waters in the Western Pacific through the Bashi Channel that separates the island from the Philippines ahead of a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S.

China's coast guard entered the waters around disputed East China Sea islets on Wednesday to counter what it called the incursion of Japanese vessels into Chinese territorial waters.Disputed East China Sea islets claimed by China and Japan have long been a sticking point in bilateral ties.

Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased.The accord crowned two months of talks brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, a NATO member that has good relations with both Russia and Ukraine and controls the straits leading into the Black Sea.Speaking at the signing ceremony in Istanbul, U.N. Secretary General Antonio…

Russia is concerned about a build-up of oil tankers in the Bosphorus Strait and is discussing the issue with insurance and transport companies, RIA cited Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Wednesday.At least 20 oil tankers queuing off Turkey face more delays to cross from Russia's Black Sea ports to the Mediterranean as operators race to adhere to new Turkish insurance rules added ahead of Europe's ship insurance ban and a G7 price cap on Russian oil…

A tanker was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman on Tuesday, causing minor damage to the hull with no injuries or spillage of the gas oil cargo, Eastern Pacific Shipping, which manages tanker Pacific Zircon, said on Wednesday. The Singapore-based firm, which is controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, said it was investigating the incident which took place approximately 150 miles off the coast of Oman. "All crew are safe and accounted for," it said. "Preliminary reports indicate the vessel...was hit by a projectile," Eastern Pacific Shipping said. "There is some minor damage to the vessel's hull but no spillage of cargo or water ingress." The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet earlier told Reuters it is aware of an incident in the Gulf of Oman involving a commercial vessel.

Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday rejected petitions that would have held up a landmark U.S.-brokered deal setting a maritime border with Lebanon, which Washington predicted could be finalized on Thursday. Four groups, including an Israeli opposition lawmaker, had asked the court to force the government - which is looking to fast-track the deal ahead of a Nov. 1 election - to instead hold a full vote in parliament. The court's decision eliminates one of the last hurdles in Israel that could disrupt the deal.

Britain's Royal Navy said on Thursday it had seized Iranian weapons, including anti-tank guided missiles, last month from a smugglers vessel in international waters in the Gulf of Oman.Britain said the vessel was detected travelling south from Iran at high speed during the hours of darkness by an unmanned U.S.

German utility RWE has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to deliver liquefied natural gas to Europe's largest economy by the end of December, RWE announced on Sunday.Though the initial amount to be delivered is relatively small, it's a politically significant deal to shore up supplies of gas from outside of Russia as Chancellor Olaf Scholz seeks to deepen ties with the Gulf and find alternative energy sources.The deal, which includes a memorandum of understanding for multi-year supplies of LNG…

At least 3 Tunisians migrants died and another 3 were missing after their boat sank off Tunisia on Thursday, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, a Tunisian civil protection civil official told Reuters.Atef Haouij, a local official in Medenine, said that the boat, which contained 17 Tunisian migrants, sank off the coast of the island of Djerba.(Reuters - Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Toby Chopra)