RIYADH, 15 December 2020, (TON): A commercial oil tanker which was reportedly hit by some external element off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah and perceived to have been targeted by an unidentified “external source” that caused an explosion with fire has been investigated. It was claimed by shipping company crew that vessel come under attack as a result foreign-backed Houthis insurgents’ attacks against Saudi Arabia’s years-long war in against Yemen.

In the yesterday statement, shipping company Hafnia said all 22 sailors on board the Singapore-flagged BW Rhine escaped without injury. The official statement said, “BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at approximately 00:40 local time on 14 December 2020 (21:40 GMT on Sunday), causing an explosion and subsequent fire onboard,” Hafnia said in the statement on its website.

The investigation also inspected oil leakage at the site of the blast but it was not found as the  oil levels on board are at the same level as before the incident.

The Western interest groups which deployed their Navies in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia want to create a suspicion about threat of Houthis for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian so that military presence remain in the Indian Ocean and the choke points and Riyadh keep them paying for intelligence inputs and protection.