AN ATTACK ON an American ship in the Red Sea was claimed by the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen last night.
Despite continued strikes on Houthi strongholds in Yemen – by the United States, United Kingdom and other coalition forces – the rebel group has continued to launch attack on ships in the Red Sea.
Yesterday, US President Joe Biden said the strikes will continue until they “work” to stop further attacks on commercial trading and other ships in the Red Sea region by the Houthis.
The attack on a US-owned ship, with Greek operators, took place yesterday evening at approximately 6pm Irish time. Houthi rebels confirmed in a social media post that “naval forces”, aligned with the movement, had targeted an American ship in the region.
The post said that the attack resulted in a number of “direct hits” on the vesel.
However, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, in an alert related to the attack last night, that no injuries were sustained to the crew aboard the Marshall-Islands flagged ship.
The alert added that the crew were safe and continuing their journey.
In a separate post, the United States Central Military Command said on X, formerly Twitter: “Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at M/V Chem Ranger, a Marshall Island-flagged, U.S.-Owned, Greek-operated tanker ship.”
The army intelligence chiefs said that crew on board claimed the attack did not result in direct hits hits to the vessel, instead impacting with the water near the ship.
“There were no reported injuries or damage to the ship. The ship has continued underway,” the statement added.
This attack comes as the Houthi movement is facing mounting pressure internationally over their continued targeting of vessels in the Red Sea.
China has condemned the group’s operations in the region and said the “harassment” of civilian boats must stop “in order to maintain the smooth flow of global production and supply chains”.
The Chinese condemnation came as the movements spokesperson, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, told Russia media that the rebels are planning to allow the safe passage of both Chinese and Russian vessels.
The Houthi movement claim that it is acting against “the oppression of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and within the response to the American-British aggression against our country”.
Last week, US and British forces launched several missile attacks on Yemen for the first time in response to previous Houthi operations that targeted commercial, civilian trading vessels.
The claim that the Houthi movement is acting in solidarity with Hamas militants in Gaza stokes fears over other militias in the Middle East being emboldened to start new conflicts.
Several major shipping firms have halted their traffic through the area because of the Houthi attacks. This has led to Denmark joining coalition forces in the Red Sea region to counter the rebel operations.
Despite the counterattacks, Biden conceded yesterday that they have not been enough to deter the Houthi movement from continuing their strikes on boats in the Red Sea.
“Are they going to continue? Yes,” Biden said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow yesterday that the Russian state is calling on the US to cease their strikes.
Reporting from © AFP 2024 on Chinese and Russian statements.
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