Small Boat Fires Two Shots at LNG Tanker 140 Miles Off Yemen, Armed Guards Fire Back

A small boat opened fire on a liquefied natural gas tanker in the Arabian Sea on Saturday, Oct. 17, and the tanker's armed guards shot back.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations center (UKMTO) said the incident took place about 140 nautical miles southeast of Mukalla, a port city in eastern Yemen. The tanker's captain reported that a boat with seven people aboard approached the ship and fired two shots toward it.

The tanker's armed security team responded with two warning shots. The boat changed course and moved away.

The initial UKMTO report did not confirm any injuries or damage to the vessel. UKMTO said authorities are investigating, and it urged ships transiting the area to exercise caution and report suspicious activity.

What is still unknown

UKMTO has not identified the people on the boat or said what they wanted. It has not announced any arrests. It has also not named the tanker, its flag or its owner.

That leaves the basic question open. Two rounds fired from a small boat is not a drone-and-missile strike of the kind seen on Red Sea shipping in earlier years. It could be a warning, a failed approach by pirates, or something else entirely. No one has said which.

No group has claimed responsibility.

A crowded and dangerous neighborhood

The shooting happened in a region already under heavy strain. The Houthis are fighting a war against Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and the broader region is in its seventh month of an Iran war and a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis have said international shipping remains safe and that only Saudi- and Israeli-linked vessels will be targeted. Over the summer, multiple Saudi vessels were attacked in the Red Sea region, and a number of tankers turned back. The Houthis have also at times signaled they might impose a toll system on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Nothing in UKMTO's advisory connects Saturday's incident to the Houthis or to that campaign. The group has made no statement about this tanker.

The war on land continued the same day. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said coalition forces intercepted four drones over Riyadh, the Eastern Province and southern Saudi Arabia.

In Taiz province, Saudi media reported two airstrikes on Houthi positions near Jabal Han, while Yemen's internationally recognized government said its forces were advancing on several fronts with air support.

The two sides gave conflicting accounts of civilian deaths in the province. The Houthi-affiliated Saba news agency accused Saudi warplanes of striking homes in Maqbanah district and killing nine people, including women and children. The internationally recognized government blamed Houthi shelling for civilian casualties in the same area, reporting eight civilians killed and six wounded in Al-Maqdi village.

Neither account has been independently confirmed.

Escort mission under pressure

The EU naval force EUNAVFOR Aspides has been warning about the trend. Its commander, Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, said commercial navigation in the Red Sea "remains challenging and volatile" amid escalating Houthi threats.

Gryparis said the mission received 239 support requests from commercial ships in September 2026 alone. He described a significant increase in requests for protection since a surge in Houthi activity last July.

He urged merchant vessels to "remain vigilant, conduct proper risk assessments, follow the latest maritime security guidance, and implement established best management practices."

Why an LNG tanker matters

LNG carriers are high-value targets because of what they haul, and the sea lanes around the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea are a strategic route for energy and trade. With Hormuz already disrupted, any new threat to tanker traffic east of Aden adds to the risk calculus for shippers and insurers.

The armed guards aboard did their job here. The armed security team turned the boat away with two shots, and no damage was reported.

UKMTO's investigation is continuing. The open questions are who was in the boat, whether the approach was tied to the regional war or to ordinary maritime crime, and whether UKMTO's next advisory names the vessel.