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US guided missile destroyer “USS Carney”

Photo: Aaron Lau / AFP

Houthi militia attacks on ships off the coast of Yemen and counterattacks by US forces continue unabated. The Iran-backed Houthis fired several missiles at ships in the Gulf of Aden on Friday. According to its own statements, the US military then fired on a militia anti-ship missile that was ready to be fired and was aimed at the Red Sea on Saturday night.

The missile, which was still on the ground, represented an "immediate threat to merchant ships and US naval vessels in the region," said the US regional command Central Command in the short message service X, formerly Twitter. The US armed forces therefore destroyed the missile “in self-defense”.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war between Israel and the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, the Houthi militias have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis are acting in solidarity with Hamas and are directing their attacks off the Yemeni coast on freighters with alleged Israeli connections.

One of the most important shipping routes for world trade runs along Yemen, through which freighters from the Indian Ocean reach the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal in Egypt. In response to the attacks, the USA and Great Britain had carried out military strikes against positions of the Islamist Houthis several times in recent weeks.

The previous evening, the Houthis had fired on a British tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The "Marlin Luanda" was "hit head-on" and caught fire, said a rebel spokesman. The British security company Ambrey also said that a fire broke out on a merchant ship after a suspected rocket hit. The crew is safe. The USA also confirmed the incident.

Trade volume in the Suez Canal collapses

The Houthis had previously fired a missile at the US destroyer USS Carney. According to the US regional command Centcom, the projectile was blocked.

Also on Friday, an oil tanker flying the Panama flag reported the sighting of several “explosions” in the Gulf of Aden, according to Ambrey. The British Maritime Security Agency (UKMTO) confirmed the information.

Because of the Houthi attacks on container ships, several shipping companies are already avoiding sailing through the Red Sea, which is leading to delays and increased freight costs due to the long detours.

On Thursday, Jan Hoffmann of the UN World Trade and Development Conference said trade volumes through the Suez Canal had plunged by 42 percent in the past two months. The number of container ships traveling through the Suez Canal each week has decreased by 67 percent compared to the previous year. Oil transit fell by 18 percent.

kry/dpa/AFP