Another Houthi missile strikes on merchant vessel with Indian crew

NT Bureau, Agencies

New Delhi: The Indian Navy has said that it deployed its guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam in the Gulf of Aden Friday in response to a Marshal Islands oil tanker’s distress call about a missile attack and a fire on board.

The oil tanker, MV Marlin Luanda, reportedly came under attack off the coast of Yemen and was set alight.

The vessel had 22 Indians and one Bangladeshi on board but no injuries or casualties were reported.

The Gulf of Aden connects with both the Red Sea, which has been seeing a spillover of the IsraelHamas war, and the Arabian Sea. In its statement, the Indian Navy said that it had deployed its Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence (NBCD) team and firefighting equipment to help fire-fighting efforts on board the distressed vessel.

According to The Guardian Saturday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed their forces carried out an operation targeting what they described as the “British oil tanker” Marlin Luanda in the Gulf of Aden.

But US Central Command, which confirmed the attack through a post on X, said that the vessel was sailing under the Marshal Islands’ flag.