Marlin Luanda missile strike

The Marlin Luanda is an oil tanker built in 2018 at the New Times Shipyards in Taizhou, China. It is owned by Suntech Maritime and operated by Oceonix Services Ltd, a company domiciled in Britain, on behalf of Trafigura, a company domiciled in Singapore.

While sailing to Singapore from Egypt the tanker, carrying Russian naphtha purchased below the price cap, was struck by an anti-ship missile launched by Houthi rebels, as part of the Red Sea crisis. At the time it was approximately 110 kilometres (59 nmi; 68 mi) south-east of Aden. The strike caused a fire in one of the ship's starboard cargo tanks, and the crew deployed firefighting equipment to combat it. Early reports suggested the crew had abandoned the vessel, but this was later confirmed to be false.

Following the attack, the USS Carney set sail towards the stricken vessel; it was also targeted by a Houthi missile, but shot it down. According to an anonymous US official, this was the first time the Houthis had directly targeted a US military vessel since the crisis began.^{[dubious – discuss]}

On 27 January, Trafigura released a statement saying that the crew were unharmed, and that they continued to battle the fire with the aid of military vessels. Later that day, Trafigura announced that the fire had been put out with the assistance of Indian, American, and French vessels and that the ship was heading towards a safe port. The USS Carney, French frigate Alsace and the Indian destroyer INS Visakhapatnam assisted. Ten Indian Navy sailors with specialist fire fighting equipment came aboard, and fought the fire with the Marlin Luanda crew of 22 Indians and one Bangladeshi for six hours.

The Houthis stated that the vessel was British and was targeted in response to "American-British aggression against our country".

Trafigura announced that it was assessing the risk of further voyages through the Red Sea following the attacks, while the Free Spirit, a tanker carrying crude oil, did a u-turn to avoid entering the Gulf of Aden shortly after the attack. Prior to the attack most oil tankers had continued traversing through the Red Sea, with the significant exception of QatarEnergy.