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Merchant ships in the Red Sea are increasingly falling victim to attacks by Houthi militias
Photo: - / AFP
A missile fired from Yemen hit a merchant ship off the Yemeni coast. The British security company Ambrey said the ship was attacked southwest of the port city of Aden. An “explosion” was reported on board the ship, it said.
The Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen have attacked numerous ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in recent months that they accuse of having ties to Israel. The militia sees itself as part of the self-proclaimed “Axis of Resistance,” which is directed against Israel and supported by Iran and to which the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip also belongs. In response to the attacks, the United States and Britain repeatedly attacked Houthi positions in Yemen.
The US military said its forces intercepted a Houthis surface-to-air missile on Wednesday. The US Central Command for the Middle East (Centcom) said the projectile posed an “imminent threat” to a US aircraft. It remained unclear what kind of aircraft it was or where it was shot down. Centcom simply stated that the incident occurred in “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”
The Houthi television channel al-Masirah had previously reported British and US attacks on the city of Saada in the north of the country.
czl/AFP