WASHINGTON — The U.S. military shot down a dozen drones and five missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at ships in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
“There was no damage to ships in the area and no injuries reported,” the Pentagon’s Central Command reported in a social media post, describing a bombardment by 12 drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land attack missiles over a period of 10 hours.
The Yemeni terrorists, backed by Iran, had indicated a few hours earlier that they had fired a missile at a cargo ship in the Red Sea and carried out a drone attack in the direction of Israel.
The Houthis, who declare themselves in solidarity with Hamas in its war against Israel in Gaza, indicated in a statement that they carried out “an operation directed against a commercial ship”, identified as “MSC UNITED”, and fired “drones against military targets” in southern Israel.
Threat persists
These attacks are the latest in a series of missile fires and drone launches by the Houthis since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7.
The terrorists warned that they could target any ship with links to Israel sailing off the coast of Yemen.
The British Army Maritime Safety Agency (UKMTO) indicated this Tuesday that it had “heard explosions and sighted missiles” near the port of Hodeida, on the western coast of Yemen, without any consequences for a ship transiting the area or for its passengers. crew members.
The same entity reported explosions near another ship near Hodeida.
Detonations were also reported off the coast of the Egyptian Sinai, media in this country indicated, before the Israeli army reported that it intercepted objects in flight over the Red Sea.
Attacks on commerce
According to the US Department of Defense, the Houthis have launched a hundred drone and missile attacks against a dozen merchant ships since the start of the war in Gaza.
These actions affected maritime navigation in the Red Sea, a strategic area in international trade.
The United States formed a coalition, joined by more than twenty countries, to protect navigation in the Red Sea, through which much of world trade passes.
The Houthis also launched attacks against Israel, the vast majority of which missed their targets.
Source: With information from AFP
