On Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that a drone had attacked a ship off the coast of India, causing an explosion and subsequent fire. Indian news agency ANI reported, citing Indian military officials, that the attacked vessel was the ship Chem Pluto sailing under the flag of Liberia. The ship was transporting crude oil from Saudi Arabia to India.
"The motor vessel Chem Pluto, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran," a Pentagon spokesperson was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
After the armed conflict between Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas escalated in October, Yemen's Ansar Allah rebel movement, also known as the Houthis, has intensified its attacks on cargo ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, vowing to continue the attacks until Israel ends its military actions in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the establishment of a multinational operation to secure the Red Sea amid the surge in Houthis' attacks on cargo ships, saying that the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles, and Spain would take part in the mission. The Houthis, for their part, vowed to attack any ships that join the US-led maritime coalition.