Yemen’s Houthi rebel group has released video footage of the hijacking of the car carrier Galaxy Leader, confirming Western reports that militants boarded the vessel by helicopter.
The video’s existence suggests that Sunday’s operation had a preplanned media component. A high-definition camera attached to the tail of the Mi-17 helicopter recorded its movements as it approached the ship. As the armed boarding team piled out of the helicopter and fanned out across the car carrier’s top deck, at least one soldier had a helmet-mounted camera turned on to capture their movements. The footage was spliced together and distributed in less than a day.
The video shows that the helicopter approached from astern, where the car carrier’s bridge team had least visibility. In what appeared to be a rehearsed and coordinated operation, the boarding team moving forward along the top deck from the landing zone, pausing periodically to take cover behind deck machinery, vents and other obstacles. The boarding team entered the car carrier’s bridge with guns raised and shouted at the crewmembers, who raised their hands and appeared to comply with instructions.
Later scenes show a member of the boarding team moving through an empty car deck, waving his gun while shouting slogans.
The footage also shows that the attack happened in broad daylight. A previous warning from the International Maritime Security Construct had advised shipping to only transit past Yemen’s coast during darkness in order to avoid detection – an unusual and stringent cautionary measure for commercial vessels in one of the world’s busiest maritime thoroughfares. Stopping during daytime would have schedule implications (and commercial effects).
NEW VIDEO: Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack a cargo ship in the Red Sea over the weekend pic.twitter.com/pkkUJpbe5c
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) November 20, 2023
The Houthi rebel militia that controls northern Yemen announced Sunday that it had captured an Israeli-linked ship and taken the crew hostage. The vessel has been identified as the PCTC Galaxy Leader, operated by NYK. It is commercially operated by the Isle of Man-incorporated, Israeli-owned ro/ro firm Ray Car Carriers, according to its Equasis record.
Israel’s defense ministry has denied that the ship is “Israeli,” but warned Sunday that the hijacking is “a very grave incident of global consequence.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reports that there are 25 seafarers aboard – none Israeli, most drawn from the top seafarer-supplying countries.
Israel has described the attack as “another act of Iranian terrorism.” Iran is the primary foreign sponsor of the Houthi cause.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement. When efforts to achieve peace are divorced from reality, they inadvertently create more incentives for violence. The Houthis would not have threatened security in the Red Sea if they were not allowed to keep Hodeida seaport in the first place,” said Nadwa Dawsari, a scholar and Yemen specialist at the Middle East Institute.