A US destroyer and several commercial vessels were attacked in the Red Sea on Sunday, the Pentagon announced. Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen later announced, according to Reuters, that they had carried out drone and missile attacks on two Israeli ships in the Red Sea, ignoring their calls.
According to an Israeli army spokesman, it was not an Israeli ship. The AP agency described the incident as a significant increase in attacks on ships in Middle Eastern waters in connection with the nearly two-month-long war between Israel and the radical Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“We are aware of reports of attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide that information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said. The US Department of Defense did not specify where the attack came from. But an unnamed US official told the AP that the attack lasted more than five hours and was launched from Sana’a, Yemen. According to the Pentagon, the destroyer shot down three attack drones.
On Sunday, the United States also struck targets in northern Iraq “in self-defense” from where drone strikes were launched. According to Washington, five Iraqi militants from an organization linked to Iran were killed.
“These waters provide a key route for global trade. Incidents like this demonstrate the importance of Her Majesty’s Navy’s presence in the region. Last week we announced that (the destroyer) HMS Diamond would reinforce HMS Lancaster with her presence,” he said on Sunday’s raid. by the British government.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they attacked the Israeli ships Unity Explorer and Number Nine, but this was denied by Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, who said the ships had no ties to Israel. “Today, rockets were fired at two merchant ships that are not associated with the state of Israel,” he said. According to him, one ship was seriously damaged and appeared to be in danger of sinking, while the other ship had minor damage. The spokesman blamed Iran, which supports Shiite rebels, for the attack. Washington believes that such an attack would not be possible without Tehran’s consent.
The Bahamas-flagged cargo ship Unity Explorer is managed by London-based Dao Shipping. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Singapore on December 15, wrote Reuters. The container ship Number Nine sails under the Panamanian flag and is managed by the British branch of Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM). BSM stated that the ship was still sailing towards Suez, there was no pollution and no crew members were injured. The missile hit the ship as it passed through the Báb al-Mandab Strait.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea recently. Yemeni groups allied to Iran have also carried out several missile and drone attacks targeting Israel this month.
The rebels, who have been fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015, have become a major military force in the region, with tens of thousands of fighters and a large number of missiles and attack drones.
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