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A British-owned cargo ship sank within the Purple Sea practically two weeks after it was broken in a missile assault by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, and the fertilizer it was carrying is now an environmental menace, the US navy mentioned late Saturday. Is producing.
The assault on the Rubymar ship final month concerned two anti-ship ballistic missiles launched from Yemen. The sinking seems to be the primary incident because the Houthis started concentrating on ships in an effort to strain Israel to finish its navy siege of Gaza.
The Central Command of the US Military has confirmed the sinking of Rubymar. assertion On social media. It mentioned the ship sank early Saturday carrying a load of 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertilizer, which now “poses an environmental menace within the Purple Sea.”
Central Command mentioned the ship additionally poses a “subsurface influence danger” to different ships passing by means of the busy worldwide transport lane space.
Central Command warned final month that the Rubymar was an “environmental catastrophe” even earlier than the sinking as a result of the assault left an 18-mile oil slick. It says the catastrophe may very well be worse if the fertilizer spills into the ocean.
No different particulars concerning the sinking, or the threats it posed to the surroundings or business transport, had been instantly out there as of Sunday morning. Rubymar sailed with the Belize flag. Its Greece-based operator Blue Fleet Group didn’t reply to inquiries.
After the assault final month, 24 crew members of the Rubimars had been evacuated to Djibouti by a ship operated by a French transport firm. Djibouti port officers mentioned on the time that the crew members had been from Syria, Egypt, India and the Philippines.