Emirati Military Vessel Damaged off Yemen Coast

 

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) military vessel was damaged in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane off the coast of Yemen today. There were no injuries to its crew, Reuters reported the UAE military saying.

Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in a Saudi-led coalition have been fighting Iran-allied Houthis who control the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and are training Yemeni troops in the port of Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

“General Command of the Armed Forces said one of its leased vessels suffered an incident in the Bab Al-Mandab strait this morning during a return trip from a mission in Aden. No injuries were caused,” UAE state news agency WAM said in a statement, adding that UAE forces were investigating the cause of the incident.

In a statement released today, the Houthis said their forces had destroyed a UAE military vessel that was advancing towards the Red Sea port of Al-Mokha, suggesting the two events may be linked.

“[Houthi] forces destroyed with a missile a military vessel belonging to the forces of the UAE,” a military official was quoted as saying by the Saba News agency, which has been run by the Houthis since they seized Sana’a last year.

In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the 20-kilometre wide Bab Al-Mandab, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

A senior Emirati commander was among dozens killed in a Tochka rocket strike in 2015 on an army camp near Bab Al-Mandab, one of the bloodiest setbacks for Arab Gulf forces in months of fighting.

MEMO