An "incident" was reported in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with initial reports indicating that an oil tanker was attacked.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that it was "aware of reports of an incident" near the port city of Yanbu on the coast of western Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday morning, a booby-trapped remote-controlled boat was intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi military near Yanbu, the Saudi Defense Ministry announced shortly after the first reports on the alleged oil tanker incident were reported. The Defense Ministry added that it is investigating who was behind the attempted attack.It is unclear if the reported incident was connected to the interception of the booby-trapped boat.
The vessel involved in the incident reported later on Tuesday was at first believed to be the NCC DAMMAM, which was last seen in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia, south of Yanbu, but the CEO of the company which owns the DAMMAM stated that it was not involved in an incident, according to Dryad Global, a maritime security risk management company.
The DAMMAM has been listed as "not under command," meaning that the vessel is unable to maneuver, for a few hours.
The reports come after a series of incidents involving Iranian, Israeli and American vessels in the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US Navy told The Wall Street Journal that Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps boats had harassed two US Coast Guard vessels in the southern Persian Gulf on April 2.Earlier this month, the Saviz, a ship belonging to the IRGC, was reportedly targeted by an alleged Israeli attack in the Red Sea.