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By Lenny Ben-David
On Monday, December 14, 2020, a fuel tanker, the Singapore-flagged
BW Rhine, was hit with an explosion while unloading at the Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea. The resulting fire was extinguished, and the crewmen were rescued. The Red Sea is a crucial shipping route between the narrow Bab-el Mandeb and the Suez Canal, and recently, ships have been sailing the gauntlet avoiding terrorist acts, mines, and remotely-steered explosive boats. It is believed that the
Rhine was hit by a robot boat, probably steered by Houthis, a Yemenite Shiite military movement serving as Iran’s proxy and at war with Saudi Arabia.
Is Iran threatening oil shipping ahead of the new US administration?
Is Iran threatening oil shipping ahead of the new US administration?
Attacks on Red Sea shipping are attributed to the Houthis. The so-called civilian “Savitz” may be the “mother-ship” providing intelligence and arms to the Iranian proxy group, but is likely being replaced by a new warship.
(December 17, 2020 / Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) On Dec. 14, a fuel tanker, the Singapore-flagged
BW Rhine, was hit with an explosion while unloading at the Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea. The resulting fire was extinguished, and the crewmen were rescued.
December 13, 2020: In November Iran presented its new warship, the Shahid Roudaki. Not exactly a warship but a RO-RO (Roll on-Roll Off) freighter thought to be a ship named Galaxy F that was built in 1992 and until recently operated in the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Atlantic. RO-RO means the ship has ramps that make it easy for vehicles to get on or off the spacious deck and spaces below the deck. The 150 meter (452 foot) long and 22 meters wide Galaxy F/ Shahid Roudaki can carry up to 536 cargo containers in the hold and on deck. This ship is elderly by commercial shipping standards and Iran could have bought it cheap, gave it a new paint job and filled a deck with various types of rockets, air-defense systems and UAVs, plus one elderly (1970s vintage) Bell 412 helicopter.