The Indian Navy swiftly responded to a drone strike on a Liberian-flagged commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden by Houthi militants. INS Kolkata provided prompt assistance, ensuring safety and conducting a risk assessment.

The Indian Navy on Tuesday said it “swiftly” responded in assisting a Liberian-flagged commercial vessel after it came under a drone strike in the Gulf of Aden. The fresh incident on Monday came amid increasing global concerns over attacks on various commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Houthi militants.

In the last few weeks, the Indian Navy extended assistance to a number of merchant vessels in the western Indian Ocean following attacks on them.

The Navy swiftly responded to a maritime incident in the Gulf of Aden, it said on ‘X’.

It said the Liberian-flagged vessel, while transiting approximately 90 nautical miles Southeast of Aden reported a fire due to “drone/ missile attack” on Monday.

“INS Kolkata, mission deployed in the region for maritime security operations, promptly responded and arrived at scene of incident by 2230 hours,” it said.

The Navy said a specialised firefighting team of 12 personnel from INS Kolkata embarked the vessel early morning hours of March 5 to assist in firefighting efforts.

A specialist EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) team also embarked the vessel and provided assistance in residual risk assessment, it said.