Fact-Check: Did Yemeni Houthis Attack an Indian Ship?

A video showing huge plumes of smoke emitting from a cargo ship is making the rounds on the social media platform X(formerly Twitter). Pak-based handles shared this video and claimed that Yemeni Houthis hit an Indian ship in the Red Sea with an anti-ship missile. The vessel, allegedly carrying ammunition for Israel, left 15 Indians dead.

An account named Alpha Intel posted this video and wrote: “Yemeni Houthis hit an Indian ship in the Red Sea with an anti-ship missile. The vessel, allegedly carrying ammunition for Israel, left 15 Indians dead. The U.S. Navy rescued 150 on board”

A social media post by the account 'Alpha Intel' claims that Yemen's Houthis hit an Indian cargo ship in the Red Sea with an anti-ship missile. The post alleges that the vessel was carrying ammunition for Israel and that the attack resulted in the death of 15 Indians. It also states that the U.S. Navy rescued 150 people onboard. The attached video shows a cargo ship engulfed in thick black smoke, fueling the viral claim. This post has been widely shared on X (formerly Twitter), with various Pakistan-based accounts amplifying the narrative. However, the authenticity of this claim remains unverified. Fact-checking efforts are underway to determine the truth behind the video and the allegations made in the post. — Link

Moreover, other Pakistan-based handles shared this video and made a similar claim. The preview link can be seen here.

Fact-Check

In the probe, the DFRAC team found the claim to be false. The video shared with the claim is from 2021, showing, the cargo ship X-Press Pearl caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka.

Firstly, we conducted a keyword search on Google regarding the above-shared claim but no such reports have come to light in support of the above claim or mentioning the facts about Houthis hitting an Indian ship recently.

Taking our investigation further, we reverse-searched the key frames generated from the video shared with the above-made claim.
This process led us to the video reports from 2021 on YouTube showing similar visuals as seen in the above shared video. The caption of the video uploaded by CNA on June 21, 2021, read: ”Sri Lanka braces for oil spill as burned-out cargo ship sinks”.

A composite image showing screenshots from two news videos reporting on a cargo ship fire near Sri Lanka. The first screenshot, from CNA, has a title stating 'Sri Lanka braces for oil spill as burned-out cargo ship sinks,' and shows a ship engulfed in thick black smoke and flames, with a timestamp of May 20. The second screenshot, from BBC News, displays a similar scene of a burning cargo ship emitting heavy black smoke, with a title indicating that the Sri Lankan Navy rescued the crew following a chemical fire on the vessel. Both images suggest that the viral video claiming a Yemen Houthi attack on an Indian ship in the Red Sea may actually be from this unrelated incident near Sri Lanka. The DFRAC watermark is present in the image, implying a fact-check analysis. — Link 1 and Link 2

Further, by searching keywords such as Sri Lankan cargo vessel burnt in 2021, we got reports by NDTV and Reuters published in 2021. The reports stated that the Singapore-flagged cargo ship named MV ”X-Press Pearl” caught fire, which was carrying a consignment of chemicals and raw materials for cosmetics from Hazira in Gujarat to Colombo Port on May 20 when caught fire some 9.5 nautical miles away from the port of Colombo.

Conclusion

It is from DFRAC’s fact-check that the viral video has been misleadingly shared with the false claim. In reality, no such incident of Houthis hitting an Indian ship has been reported. Notably, the video shared along with the claim dates back to 2021, showing a Singapore-flagged cargo ship carrying chemicals that caught fire.

Analysis: misleading