What happened

A widely shared social-media account reported a large explosion beside a Cameroon-flagged cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandab strait, said the ship came to a stop, and relayed initial claims of a missile fired from Yemen at about 21:21 local time. The account attributed this to unnamed Israeli media via an aggregator; no wire service, maritime-security firm or naval authority naming the vessel, the location or a missile had been identified when this entry was added. Separately, maritime-security firm Ambrey reported an explosion aboard a Cameroon-flagged tanker roughly 60 nautical miles south of Ahwar on Yemen's Gulf of Aden coast — several hundred kilometres east of Bab al-Mandab — with the cause unclear, a crew preparing to abandon ship, and the vessel not matching the Houthi target profile. Whether these are the same event is not established. The vessel name, flagged cause, damage and casualties all remain unverified, and the marker is an approximate strait reference rather than a fixed position.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.