Indian Navy's INS Visakapatnam Comes To Rescue After Receiving SOS Calls From Red Sea

A Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Marlin Laund was attacked by missile on Friday night. As a reponse to the distress call, Indian Navy’s guided missile destroyer INS Visakapatnam, which was deployed in the Gulf of Aden, said Indian Navy.

As per the Navy, the MV has 22 Indian and one Bangladeshi crew members were on board, while the ship was learnt to have caught fire, and reported damage. No casualty or injury was reported. In a statement, Indian Navy said that the Navy “remains steadfast and committed towards safeguarding MVs and ensuring safety of life at sea,”.

#IndianNavy“s Guided missile destroyer, #INSVisakhapatnam, deployed in the #GulfofAden responded to a distress call from MV #MarlinLuanda on the night of #26Jan 24.
The fire fighting efforts onboard the distressed Merchant Vessel is being augmented by the NBCD team along with… pic.twitter.com/meocASF2Lo

— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) January 27, 2024

The operator of the British oil tanker that has been struck said that the it was struck by a missile in the Gulf of Aden after transiting the Red Sea, as per media report. The Indian Navy has increased its surveillance apparatus in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It has deployed frontline destroyers and frigates as the attack against the container vessels started to increase recently.

On December 15, the Indian Navy Warship responded to a distress call from a cargo carrier in the Arabian Sea, MV Ruen, a Maltese vessel which had raised the alarm. Earlier this month, India’s Navy commandos from the warship INS Chennai successfully intercepted and reached the hijacked vessel MV Lila Norfolk.

Red Sea has became an extremely risky path for the commercial vessels as the attacks from the Yemen”s militia group Houthis started to target the vessels vowing their support to Hamas resistance group of Palestine. Houthis claim to attack vessels that have link to Israel, and said that they would stop the attack only if Israel stop its genocidal war on Gaza.