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- Attacks mark end of a lull lasting nearly a month in the militia’s attacks on international shipping in Red Sea and other waters off Yemen
AL-MUKALLA: Two commercial ships were damaged during attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday. The Yemeni militia said it also targeted military sites in Israel with five drones in support of Palestine and Lebanon.
UK Maritime Trade Operations, an agency that monitors incidents at sea, said it received an alert on Tuesday morning from a ship 64 miles northwest of the west-coast Yemeni city of Hodeidah saying a drone hit the vessel, puncturing a port ballast tank. The ship’s master said he also observed four splashes close to the vessel, the crew is safe and the vessel is heading to its next port of call.
Also on Tuesday morning, the agency said the master of another ship, located 97 nautical miles northwest of Hodeidah, reported a missile strike that caused damage but the crew was safe.
The ship in the first incident was identified as the Panamanian-flagged crude oil tanker Cordelia Moon, which was traveling from India to an unknown location. The Houthis claim to be targeting international shipping with links to Israel, the US or the UK in support of the Palestinian people, but details of the vessel on ship-tracking websites such as www.marinetraffic.com showed no obvious connection with those countries.
Information on TankerTrackers.com, an oil shipment tracking service, indicated the ship did not have any oil on board when attacked. In a message posted on social media network X, the website wrote: “Cordelia Moon is currently empty after delivering a million barrels of Russian crude oil to India. The fact that she’s empty makes her MORE explosive (remember Pablo?) as well as a more attainable target due to her increased height above sea level.”
The Pablo was an empty oil tanker that exploded in the Malaysian waters shortly after making a delivery last year.
The Joint Maritime Information Center confirmed the Cordelia Moon had been attacked by missiles and a drone and sustained damage but did not require assistance.
“JMIC assesses that (the ship) was likely targeted due to affiliations within the vessel’s operational structure,” the organization said.
The other targeted ship was a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier heading from Oman toward the Suez Canal.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement on Tuesday that the militia attacked the “British” oil tanker Cordelia Moon with eight ballistic missiles, an unmanned aerial vehicle and a drone boat. He said the militia also attacked a ship called Marathopolis twice in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea with a missile and a drone for violating a Houthi ban on sailing to Israel.
The Houthis also said on Tuesday that they targeted a military site in the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, with a drone and launched four drones at similar targets in the Red Sea city of Eilat.
Sarea said the attacks against Israel were “in triumph for the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, and in support of the valiant Palestinian and Lebanese resistance.”
The attacks at sea on Tuesday marked the end of a lull lasting nearly a month in the militia’s attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and other waters off the coast of Yemen.
Since November, the Houthis have seized one commercial ship and kidnapped its crew, sunk two others, and launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at commercial and naval vessels in international shipping lanes.
They say the aim of their terror campaign is to put pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza, and that they only attack ships linked to Israel, bound for the country, or with parent companies that do business with Israeli ports.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate said on Tuesday that Abdo Mused Al-Mudan, a journalist held by the Houthis, has been moved to the intensive care unit at a hospital in Sanaa after his health deteriorated at a militia detention facility.
Al-Mudan was one of more than 400 people abducted from their homes or the streets by the Houthis last week for commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 26, 1962, revolution or encouraging others to do so.
The syndicate said his health deteriorated as a result of mistreatment by his captors and poor conditions at the detention facility, raising concerns about the health of other journalists and activists held by the Houthis.
“The syndicate renews its demand for the immediate release of all journalists detained by the Houthi group, as well as all prisoners of conscience arrested since the beginning of last September,” the organization said.
Despite growing condemnation of their crackdown on those who celebrated the anniversary of the revolution, the Houthis refuse to release the detainees, accusing them of being US stooges who are undermining security in areas under the militia’s control in an attempt to put pressure on them to halt the attacks on international shipping.