Red Sea: new Houthi rebel attack on container ship

Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired on a ship in the Red Sea on Friday, a US official and Britain’s maritime security agency said, a day after a similar attack in the strategic maritime area. The Iranian-backed militia, which has been involved in Yemen’s civil war since 2015, has been increasing attacks on commercial shipping in the region.

“We know that something fired from a Houthi-controlled area in Yemen hit the damaged ship and a fire was reported,” a US military official told AFP. Britain’s maritime safety agency UKMTO also said the ship collided with an “unknown object” causing a fire, without causing any casualties.

According to the intelligence agency Ambrey, the ship was hit by a shell while crossing the Bab el-Mandab Strait. According to Ambry, the ship is a Liberian-flagged container ship owned by the German company Hapag-Lloyd AG, which has offices in the Israeli ports of Ashdod, Haifa and Tel Aviv.

“There was an attack on one of our ships,” a company spokesman confirmed to AFP. He said the ship was heading to Singapore from the Greek port of Piraeus. According to the same source, there were no casualties, the ship continued its journey to its destination.

The United States responded with the voice of American National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who visited Tel Aviv. Yemen’s Houthi rebels “pose a concrete threat to free navigation” in the Red Sea, he said on Friday. “The United States is working with the international community and its partners in the region to counter this threat,” he added to reporters after meeting with Israeli officials.

Ships linked to Israel came under attack

Houthi rebels have warned they will attack any ship sailing off the coast of Yemen with ties to Israel, in response to the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, they said they carried out a “military operation against the Maersk Gibraltar container ship” heading towards Israel, “by targeting it with a drone.” However, a US official said the missile missed its target and fell into the water.

Two days earlier, on December 12, the French army shot down a drone that threatened the same tanker. The multi-role frigate Languedoc (FREMM) then “came to the defense of the damaged building, preventing an attempted hijacking of the ship,” the ministry said in a press release. The French ship itself became the target of drones launched from Yemen. The French General Staff called for avoiding “any regional fire.”