DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship set ablaze by a series of attacks in the Red Sea began taking on water Sunday night as its crew prepared to abandon the vessel, the first serious assault in the vital corridor for trade after a monthslong campaign by Yemen's Houthi rebels there.
Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on the Houthis, particularly as a security firm said it appeared bomb-carrying drone boats hit the ship after it was targeted by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The rebels' media reported on the attack but did not claim it. It can take them hours or even days before they acknowledge an assault.
A renewed Houthi campaign against shipping could again draw in U.S. and Western forces to the area, particularly after President Donald Trump targeted the rebels in a major airstrike campaign.
And it comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most-sensitive atomic sites amid an Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
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