Oil tanker at the Saudi Port of Jeddah attacked.
Image Credit : Twitter (Malik ZayD)
Reports came in of an attack on an anchored oil tanker in the Saudi Arabia’s port of Jeddah on Monday. The tanker was attacked by a small boat full of explosives. All 22 sailors escaped unharmed. The tanker was hit at about 00:40 local time, 21:40GMT. This comes weeks after similar attacks on a Maltese-flagged oil tanker and two Saudi oil facilities, which were blamed on Yemen’s Houthi’s group. Saudi Arabia is in war with Yemen’s Houthi. Read more about this here:
https://whatnownews24.com/2020/11/30/several-saudi-soldiers-were-killed-according-to-houtis/
The Singapore-flagged oil tanker is owned by BW Rhine, where in a statement said that the tanker was ‘hit from an external source’, and that the blast caused damage to the ship’s hull. The fire after the blast was extinguished quickly by the 22 crew onboard, which were also helped by the shore fire brigade.
The attack resulted in a small fire, which emergency units successfully extinguished. The incident did not result in any casualties, and there was no damage caused to the unloading facilities, nor any effect on supplies.
Ministry Spokesman.
Some oil could have leaked out of the tanker after the attack, but this has not been confirmed yet.
It is possible tha some oil has escaped from the vessel, but this has not been confirmed and instrumentation currently indicates that oil levels on board are at the same level as before the incident.
Ministry Spokesman
The Saudi Arabia authorities took until Monday afternoon to confirm the attack, and classified the attack as a terrorist attack. The energy ministry than confirmed the attack when he spoke to state media. The port of Jeddah is a vital port, and that makes it a target for Houthis. The latest attack shocked Saudi Arabia, as Houthis managed to attack an anchored oil tanker in a supposedly high security port using minimal technology during the attack. Basically, they just threw a boat full of explosives onto the tanker during early morning, and no-one in the port saw it coming.
The Red Sea is an important shipping lane for both global energy supplies and cargo. This means that security in the Red Sea is not only important to Saudi Arabia, but also for the rest of the World. The Houthis did not yet comment on the attack.
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