Sunken ship carrying fertilizer threatens Red Sea, US says

A British-owned cargo ship sank in the Red Sea about two weeks after being damaged in a missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militia. The fertilizer it now had on board posed an environmental risk, the US military said late on Saturday.

Last month’s attack on the ship, the Rubymar, involved two anti-ship ballistic missiles launched from Yemen. The sinking appeared to be the first since the Houthis began targeting ships in an attempt to pressure Israel to end its military siege in Gaza.

The US Army Central Command confirmed the sinking of the Rubymar in a statement on social media. It said the ship sank early on Saturday while carrying a cargo of 21,000 tonnes of ammonium phosphate sulphate fertilizer, which now posed “an environmental risk in the Red Sea”.

The ship also poses a “subsurface impact risk” to other ships transiting the area, a busy international shipping route, the Central Command said.

The Rubymar was an “environmental disaster” even before its sinking as the attack left an oil slick stretching 30 kilometers, Central Command warned last month. It was said that the disaster could worsen if the fertilizer ended up in the sea.

No other details about the sinking, or the risks it posed to the environment or commercial shipping, were immediately available Sunday morning. The Rubymar flew a Belizean flag. The ship’s operator, Blue Fleet Group, based in Greece, did not respond to an inquiry.

After last month’s attack, the 24 crew members of the Rubymar were taken to Djibouti by a French shipping company. Djibouti port officials said at the time that the crew members were from Syria, Egypt, India and the Philippines.