A British-owned cargo ship sank within the Crimson Sea about two weeks after being broken in a missile assault by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, and the fertilizer it was carrying now posed an environmental danger, the US army stated late Saturday.
The assault final month on the vessel, the Rubymar, concerned two antiship ballistic missiles launched from Yemen. The sinking gave the impression to be the primary for the reason that Houthis started concentrating on ships in an effort to place stress on Israel to finish its army siege in Gaza.
The U.S. army’s Central Command confirmed the Rubymar’s sinking in an announcement on social media. It stated the ship sank early Saturday whereas carrying a load of 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that now introduced “an environmental danger within the Crimson Sea.”
The ship additionally poses a “subsurface impression danger” to different ships transferring by the world, a busy worldwide delivery lane, the Central Command stated.
The Rubymar was an “environmental catastrophe” even earlier than sinking as a result of the assault created an 18-mile oil slick, Central Command warned final month. It stated that the catastrophe may worsen if the fertilizer have been to spill into the ocean.
No different particulars concerning the sinking, or the dangers it posed to the surroundings or to industrial delivery, have been instantly obtainable on Sunday morning. The Rubymar sailed with a Belize flag. The ship’s operator, Blue Fleet Group, based mostly in Greece, didn’t reply to an inquiry.
After the assault final month, the Rubymar’s 24 crew members have been taken to Djibouti by a vessel operated by a French delivery firm. Djibouti port officers stated on the time that the crew members have been from Syria, Egypt, India and the Philippines.
