Oil tanker (Archive)
Oil tanker (Archive)iStock

An oil tanker was reportedly attacked Wednesday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported.

The Greek-flagged Sounion tanker was reportedly attacked 77 nautical miles west of Yemen's port of Hodeidah by two small boats and three projectiles. There was a brief exchange of fire.

It is suspected that the Yemeni Houthi rebel group is behind the attacks.

"The first craft had 3-5 persons onboard, while the second had approximately 10. The two small craft hailed the merchant vessel, leading to a brief exchange of small arms fire," UKMTO wrote in its warning.

"The distance between the small craft and the merchant vessel subsequently increased to 2NM. Subsequently at 0500UTC the Master reported that the merchant vessel had been struck by two unidentified projectiles before being hit by a third projectile. The vessel reports being not under command."

No casualties were reported.

Separately, the security firm Ambrey reported an incident in the same area, but did not provide details.