US Warns Ships to 'Exercise Caution’ in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden After Ship Attacks

In response to several attacks and seizures of commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in recent weeks, the US government has issued a warning to navigators to “exercise caution” when transiting the waterways.

“Exercise caution when transiting these areas and remain cognizant of evolving threats in this region,” the US Department of Transportation said on Monday in an alert about the seizure of several ships in recent days.

However, UK security company Ambrey told US media that it was Israeli-owned or Israeli-flagged ships that faced the most risk in the region, although noting that sometimes vessels have been attacked due to mistaken identity, too.

The southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have long been dangerous areas to traverse, especially due to the war in Yemen between the Yemeni government and its Sunni allies and the insurgent Shiite Ansarallah movement, better known as the Houthis, that has raged since 2015. However, Somali pirates, driven by desperation from decades of civil war, have threatened nearby commercial vessels for nearly two decades.

Recently, however, things have taken a new turn with the war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups that re-erupted on October 7. Seemingly triumphant in the Yemeni civil war, Ansarallah has declared itself allied with the Palestinian resistance groups and launched a series of drone and ballistic missile attacks against the southern Israeli city of Eilat, as well as US warships in the region.

On November 19, Ansarallah fighters boarded and seized an automobile carrier, the Galaxy Leader, owned by Israeli billionaire Abraham Ungar, which was taken to the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. After, Ansarallah posted a graphic of the Galaxy Leader alongside the Rwabee, an Emirati-flagged ship the group seized in early 2022 on claims it was carrying military supplies for the Saudi-led anti-Houthi alliance. The graphic warned: “we will seek out more.”

The Yemenis are teasing us so much😭😭🤣 pic.twitter.com/PuoAz3ayyw

— روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) November 25, 2023

A few days after the Galaxy Leader was seized, the Liberia-flagged chemicals tanker Central Park was boarded and temporarily seized in the Gulf of Aden. The ship is owned by Zodiac Maritime, which is chaired by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. However, after the US Navy boarded the vessel on Monday and returned control to the owners, it was revealed the hijackers were Somalis, not Yemenis, and that Ansarallah was not involved.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters it was "clearly a piracy-related incident," adding: "we know that they're not Houthi."

Nonetheless, the Yemeni group fired a pair of ballistic missiles at the USS Mason, the American destroyer that responded to the distress call, a few hours after the incident with the Central Park had ended. The missiles fell into the sea roughly 10 nautical miles from the warship.

Another vessel, the Maltese-flagged container ship CMA CGM Symi, was allegedly targeted by an Iranian-made drone carrying a small bomb, while in the Indian Ocean. Anonymous US officials told US media they believed the attack had been coordinated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), although they provided nothing to substantiate that claim. CMA CGM is part of the Singapore-based company Eastern Pacific Shipping, another part of Ofer’s shipping empire.

After nearly two months of air bombardment and weeks of furious ground combat following an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, a temporary pause in the fighting began on November 24 to allow for the release of hostages on both sides and for humanitarian aid to enter the besieged territory.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, nearly 15,000 people have been killed in the territory, although thousands more remain unaccounted for amid the widespread destruction and massive population transfer by the Israeli Defense Forces. Some 1,200 Israeli civilians were killed on October 7 amid a cross-border attack by Gazan militant forces, and according to the IDF, at least 66 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza invasion, although Hamas and other Palestinian groups have claimed dozens of strikes on Israeli armored vehicles.