Ship in Red Sea escapes Houthi missile, boat attack

AL-MUKALLA: Three missiles presumably launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia attacked a commercial ship cruising in the Red Sea on Monday, just after it avoided an assault by manned boats and a drone boat, a UK marine agency said. 

UK Maritime Trade Operations said that the captain of a ship traveling 70 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Hodeidah reported seeing a missile fall in proximity to the ship at about 8 a.m. GMT.

Forty-five minutes later, the captain reported that two additional missiles had exploded near the ship but that the ship and the crew were unharmed.

In a previous notification on Monday, UKMTO reported the master of the same ship as saying the ship was attacked by a remotely operated boat and two other boats manned by three people.

The drone boat crashed with the ship twice while the men opened fire on it, and the tiny boats ceased the assault when the ship’s crew “conducted self-protection measures.”

The attack in the Red Sea occurred less than a day after the Houthis claimed responsibility for two attacks on a ship in the Red Sea and on Israel. 

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a broadcast statement on Tuesday evening that their troops assaulted the “Israeli” MSC Unific ship in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones, also firing drones at “military locations” in the Israeli port city of Eilat.

Since November, the Houthis have destroyed two ships, captured another, and launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles, and remotely operated and explosive-rigged boats at over 100 navy and commercial ships in international sea lanes off Yemen.

They claim that their attacks target solely Israel-bound or Israel-linked ships to pressure Israel to cease its military operations in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which have killed hundreds of people.

Houthi media said that US and UK forces conducted two attacks on Hodeidah city airport and another on an unspecified location in Alluheyah District in Hodeidah province on Sunday.

The two countries also conducted another airstrike on a Houthi position in the northern province of Hajjah on Sunday, according to the Houthis.

This comes as the US Central Command said on Sunday night that US forces had destroyed two Houthi drones over the Red Sea and one drone boat in the Red Sea during the previous 24 hours.

The US military also destroyed another Houthi drone in a Houthi-controlled region of Yemen.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered in the streets of Taiz, Yemen, on Monday to show their support for the central bank’s recent punitive steps against banks in Houthi-held Sanaa.

Protesters marched through the streets of the besieged city of Taiz, carrying images of Ahmed Ghaleb, the governor of Yemen’s central bank in Aden, and posters calling for the central bank’s decisions to be imposed on Sanaa banks that refused to relocate their offices from Sanaa to Aden, Yemen’s interim capital.

“The republic’s restoration commences with the restoration of the central bank and the state’s looted capabilities,” a poster read. 

On July 7, Aden’s central bank announced the revocation of the licenses of six banks that refused to comply with its prior demand to shift their headquarters from Sanaa to Aden and cease interacting with the Houthis. 

Following the central bank’s decision, UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg wrote to Rashad Al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, requesting him to stop the punitive actions against the banks and engage in economic discussions with the Houthis.

The council decided to delay the decision and attend the negotiations, but the Houthis rejected the UN proposal.

Protesters in Taiz requested that the central bank proceed with the decision against Sanaa banks and lambasted the international community, especially the UN, for pressing the banks to back down.

“When the Houthis fall, the world community rushes to rescue them,” a poster carried by Taiz protesters said.