LONDON/ATHENS: The crew of the Hong Kong-flagged ASL Bauhinia have abandoned the container ship in the Red Sea after it caught fire on Tuesday, two maritime sources said, adding the cause of the incident was not immediately clear.
The crew were rescued by another vessel and are safe, the sources said, adding that the incident took place in the open sea off Yemen.
The Shanghai-based manager of ASL Bauhinia, Asean Seas Line, was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier this month, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia said the group would limit their attacks on commercial vessels sailing through the Red Sea to Israel-linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented.
Commercial ship owners, insurers and retailer remain cautious over the Houthis’ announcement with current traffic through the Red Sea and Suez Canal dominated by Chinese and Russian linked vessels, which have been seen as lower risk.
Since the Houthis began attacks on shipping in sympathy with the Palestinians in Gaza, most vessels have diverted to the longer east-west route via the southern tip of Africa.

ISTANBUL: Turkiye said on Wednesday it had killed 13 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and two in Iraq, a sign that Ankara has pressed on with its campaign against fighters, some with possible links to US allies, since Donald Trump took office in the White House last week.
The Turkish defense ministry said the Kurdish fighters it had “neutralized” in Syria belonged to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
Turkiye considers the PKK and YPG to be identical; the United States considers them separate groups, having banned the PKK as terrorists but recruited the YPG as its main allies in Syria in the campaign against Islamic State.
Turkiye has long called on Washington to withdraw support for the YPG, and has expressed hope that Trump would revise the policy inherited from the previous administration of President Joe Biden.
Tuesday’s report of major clashes was the second within days: Turkiye also reported having killed 13 Kurdish militants on Sunday.
Turkish forces and their allies in Syria have repeatedly fought with Kurdish militants there since the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Assad last month.
Turkiye has said that the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed umbrella group that includes the Kurdish YPG, must disarm or face a military intervention.
Under the Biden administration the United States has had 2,000 troops in Syria fighting alongside the SDF and YPG.