Reuters: Houthis send threatening emails to ship owners

On a warm spring night in Athens just before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed a suspicious email in his inbox.

The letter, which was also sent to the company's director via email, warned that one of the company's cargo ships transiting the Red Sea was at risk of attack by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group.

The English-language message, seen by Reuters, said the ship, operated by the Greek company, had violated a Houthi-imposed traffic ban by docking at an Israeli port and that “the Yemeni armed forces will directly target it in any area they designate.”

“You bear responsibility and the consequences of placing the vessel on the blockade list,” the letter, signed by the Humanitarian Coordination Centre in Yemen, a centre set up in February to coordinate between the Houthis and commercial vessel operators, said.

The Houthis have launched about 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November, in solidarity with Palestinians in the year-long war in Gaza. Their attacks have sunk two ships, seized a third and killed at least four sailors.

The letter, which arrived in late May, warned of “sanctions” on the company’s entire fleet if the ship continued to “violate the embargo criteria and enter the ports of the occupied Israeli entity.” The executive declined to reveal his identity or the name of the company for security reasons.

The warning was the first of more than a dozen threatening letters sent to at least six Greek shipping companies since May amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, according to six shipping industry sources with direct knowledge of the letters and two others with indirect knowledge.

Since last year, the Houthis have been launching missiles, drones and boats loaded with explosives at commercial ships linked to Israeli, American and British entities.

The email campaign, which has not been previously reported, suggests that Houthi militants are expanding their network and targeting Greek merchant ships with little or no connection to Israel.

In the past few months, threats have been directed for the first time at entire fleets, increasing the risks to ships trying to cross the Red Sea.

“Your ships have violated the decision of the Yemeni armed forces… Therefore, sanctions will be imposed on all ships of your company… Best regards, Yemeni Navy,” read a separate email in June sent by a Yemeni government website to the first company mentioned weeks later and to another Greek company that also declined to be named.

Yemen has been embroiled in civil war for years. In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and overthrew the internationally recognized government. In January, the United States re-listed the Houthis as a terrorist group.

Houthi officials declined to confirm that they had sent the emails or provide any further comment when contacted by Reuters, saying it was classified military information.

Reuters was unable to determine whether the messages were sent to other foreign shipping companies.

Data from Lloyd's List Intelligence showed that about 30 percent of Houthi attacks through early September were on ships owned by Greek companies, which represent one of the largest fleets in the world, without specifying whether these ships were linked to Israel.

In August, the Houthis, part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance coalition of anti-Israeli irregular armed groups, attacked the tanker Sunion and left it burning for weeks before it was towed to a safer area.

The attacks have forced many cargo ships to take a much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope. Lloyd's List Intelligence data showed that traffic through the Suez Canal fell from about 2,000 ships a month before November 2023 to just about 800 ships in August 2024.

Tensions in the Middle East reached a new peak on Tuesday when Iran launched an attack on Israel with more than 180 missiles in response to the killing of some Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon, led by the group's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah.

New phase

The EU’s Red Sea naval mission, Aspides, confirmed the Houthis’ evolving tactics during a closed-door meeting with shipping companies in early September, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. Aspides has helped more than 200 ships navigate safely through the Red Sea.

The Houthis’ decision to send warnings to entire fleets marks the beginning of “phase four” of their military campaign in the Red Sea, Aspidis said in the document it shared with shipping companies.

Aspidis also urged ship owners to turn off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) devices, which show a ship's position and provide navigational assistance to nearby vessels, saying they must be turned off or risk being fired upon.

Aspidis reported that the Houthi missile attacks had a 75 percent accuracy rate when targeting ships with AIS on. The same report said that 96 percent of attacks launched when AIS was off missed their targets.

"Aspedis is aware of these emails," Aspedis operations chief Vasileios Griparis told Reuters, adding that any response must be carefully considered and that companies are strongly advised to inform their security experts if they are contacted before sailing.

“In particular, for the Humanitarian Coordination Centre, the advice or direction is not to respond to high-frequency radio communications or emails from the ‘Yemeni Navy’ or the ‘Humanitarian Coordination Centre’,” he added.

The Houthi email campaign began in February with letters to ship owners, shipping companies and the main seafarers' union from the Houthis' Humanitarian Coordination Centre.

The emails, two of which were seen by Reuters, warned the shipping industry that the Houthis were banning certain ships from the Red Sea, but did not explicitly warn companies of an imminent attack. The emails sent after May were more threatening.

At least two Greek-operated shipping companies have received emailed threats and decided to end Red Sea transits, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, asking not to be identified for security reasons.

A third shipping company executive who also received the message said they had decided to end business with Israel so their ships could continue transiting the Red Sea.

“We assure the ships belonging to companies that have no connection to the Israeli enemy that they are safe and have the freedom (to move) and to keep their automatic identification system devices open at all times,” an audio recording of a message broadcast by the Houthis to ships in the Red Sea in September and shared with Reuters said.

"Thank you for your cooperation. End," they added.

Source: Reuters