Delta Blue, a suezmax belonging to Greece’s Delta Tankers, has been attacked four times in the space of 24 hours by the Houthis.
While the Houthis have targeted more than 120 ships in their 10-month campaign in solidarity with Palestinians, the targeting of the Delta Blue stands out for the repeated attempts and the use of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
In the first attack yesterday morning, the Liberian-flagged vessel was approached by two small craft and an RPG was fired in the middle of the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb. The RPG exploded close to the vessel, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre.
The second attack came early Friday, with a missile “exploding in close proximity to the vessel,” the UKMTO said. “The vessel and crew are reported to be safe.”
The private security firm Ambrey, which said the vessel had a private security crew onboard, described the ship as being hit by a drone that caused no injuries or physical damage.
In a third attack on the same ship today, the vessel was approached by a small boat and an unmanned surface vessel (USV). According to Ambrey, the USV approached the vessel at rapid speed. A private armed security team onboard the vessel displayed their weapons. When the USV continued to approach, the armed guards opened fire and were able to successfully destroy the weapon.
Determined to take out the ship, the Houthis fired another missile at the ship two hours later, but the projectile missed.
It is now 280 days since the Houthis first started targeting merchant shipping and the man tasked with overseeing the US Navy’s response to the attacks has conceded that military firepower alone will not halt the attacks.
“The solution is not going to come at the end of a weapon system,” Vice Admiral George Wikoff, the commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, said on Wednesday at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “It’s going to be the international community.”
“We have certainly degraded their capability. There’s no doubt about that,” Wikoff said. “However, have we stopped them? No.”
“Our mission remains to disrupt their ability and try to preserve some semblance of maritime order while we give an opportunity for policy to be developed against the Houthis,” he added.
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