A smartphone screen displays the MarineTraffic map showing a concentration of ship beacons in the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, with a map of the strait visible in the background, in Créteil, France, on March 30, 2026. (Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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A cargo vessel in the Red Sea has reported coming under attack, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre, a British maritime security alert service, said Sunday, amid a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
The body said it received a report of the incident 30 nautical miles (56 km) southwest of the port city of Al Hudaydah in Yemen.
“A cargo vessel has triggered a distress alert stating that they are under attack by unknown assailants,” the UKMTO said in a post on X, adding that authorities are investigating the incident.
It urged vessels to “transit with caution”.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea from 2023 through 2025 in retaliation for Israel’s war in Gaza but have largely stayed out of the U.S.-Iran war.
While the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman is one of the world’s most important choke points for energy shipments from the Middle East, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, is another key transit route.
It has acted as a crucial relief valve for the oil market as exports through the Strait of Hormuz plunged due to Iranian attacks on tanker and cargo ships after the U.S. and Israel began attacks on Iran in February.
Saudi Arabia surged oil flows through its East-West Pipeline after Hormuz closed, redirecting millions of barrels per day to the Red Sea. Those barrels are transiting the Bab el-Mandeb to Asia, which has helped offset some of the lost supply to key economies like Japan and South Korea.
The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17 to end nearly four months of war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and set up 60 days of negotiations to work out a permanent peace deal.
Oil shipments have ramped up since then. Saudi Arabia has shipped about 34 million barrels of oil through Hormuz since June 17, according to data from the trade intelligence firm Kpler. Riyadh’s exports over the two weeks to July 2 were more than double the 15 million barrels the kingdom shipped through the strait from March 9 through June 17.
Benchmark Brent crude oil prices have fallen 39% from their highs in March.
