Dubai | A ship travelling through the Red Sea is reportedly on fire after coming under attack on Sunday by armed men firing guns and launching rocket-propelled grenades, authorities said.

One report said the unidentified vessel was later hit by what may have been bomb-carrying boats, setting it ablaze.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which comes as tensions remain high in the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war and after the Iran-Israel war and airstrikes by the United States targeting Iranian nuclear sites.

However, suspicion immediately fell on Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have launched attacks on ships in the Red Sea corridor in the past and have drone boats in their arsenal.

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said an armed security team on the unidentified vessel had returned fire and that the “situation is ongoing”.

It described the attack as happening some 100 kilometres southwest of Hodeida, Yemen, which is held by the country's Houthi rebels.

“Authorities are investigating,” it said.

It later said the ship was on fire after being “struck by unknown projectiles".

Ambrey, a private maritime security firm, issued an alert saying that a merchant ship had been “attacked by eight skiffs while transiting northbound in the Red Sea.” It said it believed the attack was ongoing.

Ambrey later said the ship also had been attacked by bomb-carrying drone boats, which could mark a major escalation in the region. It said two drone boats struck the ship, while another two had been destroyed by the armed guards on board.

The US Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet referred questions to the military's Central Command, which said it was aware of the incident without elaborating.

The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The group's al-Masirah satellite news channel acknowledged the attack occurred, but offered no other comment on it as it aired a speech by its secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi. However, Ambrey said the vessel targeted met “the established Houthi target profile", without elaborating.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees USD 1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the US launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis haven't attacked a vessel, though they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel. On Sunday, the group claimed launching a missile at Israel which the Israeli military said it intercepted.

Meanwhile, a wider, decade-long war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country's exiled government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, remains in a statemate.

The Yemeni Coast Guard, which is loyal to the exiled government, has engaged in a firefight with at least one vessel in the Red Sea in the past as well.

Pirates from Somalia also have operated in the region, though typically they've sought to capture vessels either to rob or ransom their crews. But neither the Yemeni Coast Guard nor the pirates have been known to use drone boats in their attacks.