Ship heading for Yemen with UAE supplies sinks off Oman

Muscat // An Indian cargo ship loaded in the UAE with vehicles and food supplies destined for Yemen sank on Saturday off the coast of Oman but without loss of life.

Omani fishermen and police rescued all 11 crew on board, Oman’s ONA state news agency reported. The vessel’s cargo was loaded in Sharjah, but the ship sank in the Arabian Sea 26km off AS-Suwayh because of a “technical fault”, it said.

The Times of Oman said the ship was carrying 69 vehicles, food, tyres and engine oils and had been bound for the port of Mukalla in south-eastern Yemen.

The port was liberated from Al Qaeda by Yemeni troops backed by the Saudi-led coalition, which is also fighting to restore Yemen’s internationally recognised president to power after he was overthrown by Houthi rebels and their allies.

The rebels on Saturday fired a rocket from Yemen that killed a three-year-old boy in the Saudi border region of Najran, a civil defence official said, It was the latest cross-border attack by the Iran-backed rebels.

Major Ali Al Shahrani, civil defence spokesman in south-western Saudi Arabia, said a nine-year-old brother of the boy was also wounded when a Katyusha rocket hit their family’s home.

The attack came a day after rockets fired from Yemen struck a power station in Najran, marking a rare hit on Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure after months of periodic bombardment of the area.

Attacks have intensified since the suspension in early August of UN-brokered peace talks between the Shiite Houthis and their allies, and Yemen’s government.

Ten people have been killed in Najran since August 16, when a single strike claimed seven lives.

The Arab coalition, which includes the UAE, has also stepped up its air raids in Yemen since the peace talks collapsed.

The coalition intervened in March last year to support President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi after the Houthis and forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh seized Sanaa and much of Yemen.

*Agence France-Presse