( BBC )Several undersea communications cables in the Red Sea have been cut, affecting 25% of data traffic flowing between Asia and Europe, a telecoms company and a US official say.
Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications said it had taken measures to reroute traffic after four of the 15 cables were recently severed. The cause is not yet clear.
The US official said it was trying to find out whether the cables were cut deliberately or snagged by an anchor.
Last month, Yemen’s internationally-recognised government warned that the Iran-backed Houthi movement might sabotage the undersea cables in addition to attacking ships in the sea.
The Houthis – who control much of western Yemen’s Red Sea coast – denied last week that they had targeted cables and blamed US and British military strikes for any damage to them.
US and British forces have targeted Houthi weapons and infrastructure in response to the drone and missile attacks on merchant vessels passing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis say their attacks are a show of support for the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
HGC Global Communications said in a statement on Monday that four submarine cables in the Red Sea – Seacom, TGN-Gulf, Asia-Africa-Europe 1 and Europe India Gateway – had been cut in a recent “incident”.
An estimated 25% of traffic was affected, it added, noting that some 80% of the west-bound traffic from Asia passed through the cables.
HGC said it had taken measures to mitigate any disruptions for its clients by rerouting data to Europe through cables in mainland China and under the Pacific Ocean to the US, as well as using the remaining cables in the Red Sea.
African telecoms cable operator Seacom told the Associated Press that “initial testing indicates the affected segment lies within Yemeni maritime jurisdictions in the Southern Red Sea”.
A Pentagon official confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that undersea telecommunications cables in the Red Sea had been cut.
The official said the US was still trying to determine whether they were deliberately severed or snagged by a ship’s anchor.