Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a merchant ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday. in the latest escalation of the Iranian-backed militia’s campaign against shipping in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A British government maritime agency said the ship was “struck astern by a small boat” about 66 nautical miles southwest of the Houthi-held port of Hodeida in Yemen.
After the attack, the ship “was taking on water and was no longer under the command of the crew,” the British agency Maritime Trade Operations said in a statement published on its website. The statement said the ship’s captain reported that it had also been “hit a second time by an unknown aerial projectile.”
A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said in a televised address that the group used unmanned surface boats, a number of drones and ballistic missiles to target the ship, which it identified as the Tutor, a Greek bulk carrier. He said the ship had been badly damaged and was in danger of sinking.
On Wednesday, the Houthis announced that they had launched two joint military operations with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, on the Israeli cities of Ashdod and Haifa, a claim denied by Israel.
Since November, the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on ships traveling the vital Red Sea-Gulf of Aden shipping route, choking global maritime trade.
In retaliation, the US and British navies stepped up airstrikes against Houthi targets, the last one arrives on June 7 after the rebel group arrested 11 United Nations employees in Yemen.
US Central Command said its forces destroyed four aerial drones and two anti-ship missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen last Friday, as well as a Houthi patrol boat in the Red Sea.
In February, U.S. military officials said the United States struck five Houthi military targets, including an underwater drone it described as an “unmanned underwater vessel that it believed the Houthis would have could receive from Iran.
