Houthi's Sink U.K. Ship Filled With Fertilizer In Red Sea

A British-owned ship struck last month by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi forces has sunk into the Red Sea, U.K. and Yemen officials said Saturday, threatening to cause an environmental disaster with its cargo of fertilizer.

A Houthi missile strike on Feb. 18 had blown a hole in the cargo vessel, Rubymar, which was shipping 22,000 metric tons of Saudi fertilizer to Bulgaria. That evening, the crew abandoned the vessel, flagged in Belize, and it vanished into the sea late Friday after taking on water for two weeks.

Cleaning up any damage to the Red Sea and its coastal areas from the Rubymar’s fertilizer cargo will be complicated by the continued threat from the Houthis. “There won’t be anyone to help under missile threat,” said Ami Daniel, chief executive of maritime artificial-intelligence provider Windward..