War
The attack on the Rubymar ship last month involved two antiship ballistic missiles fired from Yemen
Per Oh Globo Agency MARCH 3, 2024 at 2:59 p.m
Satellite photo released March 1 by Maxar Technologies shows the cargo ship Rubymar damaged in a missile attack during a Houthi attack in the Red Sea on February 19. Ship sank on Saturday, March 2 Maxar Technologies/AFP
A British cargo ship sank in the Red Sea, about two weeks after it was damaged in a missile attack by the Iranbacked Houthi militia, and the fertilizer it was carrying now poses an environmental risk, the US military said this morning Sunday .
The attack on the Rubymar ship last month involved two antiship ballistic missiles fired from Yemen. The crew was forced to abandon the ship after one of the worst Houthi attacks in the region since the group began attacking ships to pressure Israel to end its military siege in the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. military's Central Command confirmed the Rubymar's sinking in a statement on social media. According to the statement, the ship sank on Saturday morning with a cargo of 21,000 tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer, which now “poses an environmental risk in the Red Sea.”
The ship also posed a “subsurface impact risk” to other ships passing through the area, a busy international shipping route, Central Command said.
The Rubymar was an “environmental disaster” even before it sank because the attack caused a 18milelong oil slick, Central Command warned last month, as it warned the disaster could worsen if fertilizer leaked into the sea.
Further details about the sinking or associated risks to the environment or commercial shipping were not immediately available Sunday morning. The Rubymar sailed under the Belizean flag. Its operator, Greecebased Blue Fleet Group, did not respond to requests for comment.
After the attack last month, the 24 crew members of the Rubymar were taken to Djibouti by a ship owned by a French shipping company. Djibouti port authorities said at the time that the crew came from Syria, Egypt, India and the Philippines.