The British Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that a Houthi missile hit a ship off the Yemeni coast in the Gulf of Aden today, Monday (15/1).
The attack occurred about 110 miles (177 km) southeast of Aden. The ship’s captain reported that “the left side of the ship was hit by a missile from above.” The vessel has not been identified or specified.
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in the Middle East, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Yemen’s rebels did not immediately confirm the attack, although they have fired rockets in the area in the past.
BREAKING: An attack by Yemen targeting a ship southeast of Aden pic.twitter.com/ZVDMeC3hk9
— The War Report (@thewarreporter) January 15, 2024
Yemen’s Houthi rebels also fired an anti-ship cruise missile at a US destroyer in the Red Sea, but a US fighter jet shot it down in the latest attack that has sparked outrage in global shipping amid Israel’s war with Hamas, officials said.
Sunday’s attack was the first U.S.-recognized attack by the Houthis since America and allied countries began… strike by rebels after weeks of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthis have targeted this crucial corridor linking energy and freight from Asia and the Middle East with the Suez Canal to Europe because of the war between Israel and Hamas, and the attacks threaten to escalate into a regional conflict.
The Houthis, a Shiite rebel group allied with Iran that seized Yemen’s capital in 2014, did not immediately confirm the attack.
It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. would retaliate against the latest attack, although President Joe Biden said he would “not hesitate to take additional action to protect our people and the free flow of international trade if necessary.”
On Sunday, the Houthis attacked the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Laboon operating in the southern Red Sea, US Central Command said in a statement.
The missile was fired from outside Hodeidah, a Red Sea port city long held by the Houthis, the US said.
“An anti-ship cruise missile was fired from areas of Yemen supported by the Iranian Houthi militants at the USS Laboon,” Central Command said in a statement.
“There were no reports of injuries or damage.”
The first day of U.S.-led raids involved 28 targets and carried out more than 60 cruise missile and bomb strikes from fighter jets, warships and a submarine.
The sites hit included weapons depots, radars and command centers, including those located in remote mountainous areas, the US said.
The Houthis have not yet acknowledged how severe the damage was from the strikes, which they say killed five of their soldiers and wounded six others.
On Saturday, US troops attacked a Houthi radar complex.
Shipping on the Red Sea has slowed due to attacks. The US Navy on Friday warned US-flagged ships to move away from areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for 72 hours after the first airstrikes.
For their part, the Houthis claim, without citing evidence, that the United States launched a cruise missile attack on a site near Hodeidah on Sunday around the same time.
The Americans and Great Britain did not confirm the fact of the strike, suggesting that the explosion could have been caused by a Houthi missile, which was not fired.
Since November, rebels have repeatedly struck ships in the Red Sea, saying they are retaliating for Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have often targeted ships with little or no ties to Israel, threatening shipping on a key global trade route.
Even the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, made oblique reference to the Houthis’ expanding attacks on ships in a speech on Sunday, saying that “the sea has become a battlefield for missiles, drones and warships” and blaming the US for escalating tensions at sea.
“The most dangerous thing is what the Americans did in the Red Sea, (it) will harm the security of all maritime traffic,” Nasrallah said.
While the Biden administration and its allies have been trying for weeks to reduce tensions in the Middle East and prevent a wider conflict, the strikes in the Red Sea threaten to reignite it.
It is also affecting shipping in the Middle Eastern state of Qatar, one of the world’s leading suppliers of natural gas.
Three liquefied natural gas tankers that recently loaded in Qatar and were bound for the Suez Canal are idled off the coast of Oman, while another tanker, en route from Europe to Qatar, is idled off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Representatives for QatarEnergy and the government did not respond to requests for comment.
Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s exiled Houthi government, has sought to distance itself from attacks on Houthi targets as it tries to preserve a fragile détente with Iran and a ceasefire in Yemen.
The Saudi-led and US-backed war in Yemen, which began in 2015, has killed more than 150,000 people, including militants and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands.
The US military did not say that the fire was aimed specifically at Labun, following US practice since the start of the Houthi attacks. However, American sailors received combat ribbons for their actions in the Red Sea – something only due to those engaged in active combat against enemy forces.
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