THE Bahamas-flagged 17,127-dwt NYK car carrier Galaxy Leader seized by Yemen's Houthi forces in the Red Sea has been anchored just outside of the Port of Al-Hudaydah, according to an analysis of satellite imagery, reports the New York Times.
The satellite image showed the vessel at anchor among other ships off Al-Hudaydah, Yemen's fourth city (pop 735,000), halfway up the country's western coast.
Houthis have held the capital, Sana'a (92 miles to the east), since 2014, and rule much of northern Yemen, despite attempts by a Saudi-led military coalition to defeat them.
The ship was first spotted in satellite imagery by Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, which monitors global shipping.
The video shows a military helicopter delivering at least 10 armed men onto the deck of the roughly 600-foot-long vessel and taking over the ship's bridge. The video ends with the ship, now bearing the flag used by the Houthis as well as a Palestinian flag, surrounded by smaller Houthi boats.
Hours before the hijacking, Houthi forces - part of Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance, along with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq - had threatened to target ships flagged, owned and operated by Israel traversing the Red Sea.
After the ship was seized, a Houthi spokesman announced that the hijacking was a demonstration of support for "the oppressed Palestinian people".
Israel's military said the ship was en route to India from Turkey and had an "international crew, without Israelis".
However, the company's beneficial owner - meaning the person who exercises control over it, owns more than a quarter of it or receives substantial economic benefit from it - appears to have at some point been an Israeli billionaire, Rami Ungar, according to the Paradise Papers.
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