DUBAI, UAE (AP) – An oil tanker from the Saudi port city of Jeddah exploded early Monday morning after being attacked by an “external source,” a shipping company said, adding that its long-running war in Yemen was under attack.
The BW team said in a statement that all 22 sailors aboard the Singapore-flagged BW Rhine had escaped unharmed. The company warned that some oil may have leaked from the site of the blast.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the bombing, which struck an important port and distribution center for its oil trade. However, officials blamed Yemen’s Houthi rebels for damaging a tanker from Saudi Arabia after a mine attack last month.
The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, under the British Royal Navy, urged vessels in the area to be vigilant and said investigations were ongoing.
Maritime intelligence agency Triad Global also reported on the bombing. No one immediately put forward a reason.
The 5th Fleet of the U.S. Navy, patrolling the Midwest, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The blast comes after a mine exploded and damaged in Saudi Arabia last month. Another mysterious attack earlier this month targeted a cargo ship from the small port city of Niston in the Far East of Yemen..
Yemeni Iranian-backed Houthi rebels used sea mines before the long war against the Saudi-led coalition. However, the Houthis have not commented on last month’s attack.
If the Houthis were behind Sunday’s bombing at Triad Global, it said it would “mark a fundamental shift in both target capabilities and purpose.”
The Red Sea is a major shipping lane for cargo and global energy supply, so any mining poses a risk not only to Saudi Arabia but to other parts of the world. Tunnels can enter water and then be carried away by seasonal currents in the Red Sea.
The Red Sea was cut before. In 1984, about 19 ships declared strike mines, and only one of them was recovered and disarmed, according to the UN expert panel investigating the war in Yemen.
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Follow John Combrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.