Red Sea: US Army sinks three Houthi ships, ten rebels killed in bombing

Tensions remain in the Red Sea. Ten Houthi rebels were killed in a US bombing that sank their ships in the Red Sea where they attacked a container ship, two sources from the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port of Hodeidah said on Sunday. “Ten Houthis were killed and two were wounded during a US strike on Houthi boats attempting to intercept a ship at sea off Hodeidah,” one of the two sources said. According to sources at the port, after the attack, the wounded were rescued and taken to hospital, while four others survived.

The US army previously claimed to have sunk three Houthi rebel ships following an attack in the Red Sea on a container ship by Danish carrier Maersk, which suspended the transit of its ships in the area for 48 hours. According to the US military command in the Middle East (Centcom) in a press release, which clarifies that the fourth boat “has left the area.”

23 attacks since mid-October

Since the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, following the deadly October 7 attack on Israeli territory by the Palestinian Islamist movement, the Houthis have stepped up attacks in the Red Sea in a show of solidarity against ships they consider to be “linked to Israel.” Palestinian territory was bombed and besieged by the Israeli army. The Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged container ship from Danish carrier Maersk, was the victim of “the 23rd attempted Houthi attack on international shipping since October 19,” Centcom said.

Israel’s first ally, the United States patrols the Red Sea, a strategic area of ​​the globe, along with other countries as part of an international coalition to protect maritime traffic from Houthi attacks. The Houthi attacks threaten a transit route that carries up to 12% of global trade, prompting the United States to create a multinational naval force earlier this month to protect Red Sea ships.