Illustrative image.
On December 14, a missile fired from a Yemeni area controlled by Houthis (Ansar Allah) missed a container ship traveling through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a United States defense official told the Associated Press.
According to the unnamed official, the missile splashed harmlessly in the water near the Maersk Gibraltar, a Hong Kong-flagged container ship that had been traveling from Oman’s Salalah to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
The official’s comments come after the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors Mideast shipping lanes, put out an alert warning of an incident in the strait, which separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Maersk Gibraltar was hailed over the radio by “an entity claiming to be the Yemeni Navy ahead of the missile being launched toward the vessel,” according to the private intelligence firm Ambrey.
“The Yemeni Navy demanded the vessel alter course to head for Yemen. Ambrey assessed the entity to be” the Houthis.
Shortly after the AP reported the attack, a Yemeni source told Al Jazeera that the Houthis seized a container ship in the Red Sea and were taking it to a Yemeni port. It is still unclear if the ship in question is the Maersk Gibraltar, one of the world’s biggest shippers.
The Houthis, who control much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and possess a large arsenal of missiles and drones, are a part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” that is backed by Iran and opposes Israel.
The group has fired several missiles and drones at the southernmost Israeli city of Eilat since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip. It has also assaulted a number of Israeli-owned ships.
Last week, the Houthis announced that they will start targeting any ship passing through the Red Sea en route to Israel, regardless of whether the ship’s ownership is linked to the country, in response to the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
A Norwegian-owned tanker that was sailing to an Israeli port was the first to be struck by the group on December 11, just two days after the threat. Later on December 13, missiles were fired from Yemen at the Marshall Islands-flagged Ardmore Encounter oil and chemical tanker. However, the vessel was not hit.
Israel has already reinforced its presence in the Red Sea by deploying one of its advanced Sa’ar 6-class corvette to Eilat. The U.S. is also reportedly working on a naval task force to counter the Houthis.
houthis strong 💪!
houthis now attack our homosexual maersk —we submissive weak stoopid nazi