The Houthi attack targeted the US destroyer Karni in the Red Sea (Associated Press)

The British Maritime Trade Operations Authority said that the Yemeni Navy intercepted a commercial ship and ordered it to change its course, while the US Army announced the downing of an anti-ship ballistic missile and three attack drones launched from areas controlled by the Ansar Allah Houthi group in Yemen.

The British authority added that the ship received calls from an entity describing itself as the Yemeni Navy, via high-frequency radio waves for approximately 30 minutes while it was sailing about 50 nautical miles (93 kilometers) southwest of the Yemeni city of Aden.

For its part, the US Central Command (Centcom) said that the Houthis fired projectiles and drones towards the US destroyer Carney in the Red Sea, without causing any damage to it.

The command added that the US army later destroyed 3 other missiles and 3 drone boats, which were prepared for launch in areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen, also yesterday, Tuesday.

Military operation

On the other hand, the military spokesman for the Ansar Allah Houthi group, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced the implementation of what he described as a qualitative military operation targeting two American war destroyers in the Red Sea.

The spokesman explained that the operation to target the two destroyers used naval missiles and drones, stressing that operations will continue until the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and the siege on the Palestinian people is lifted.

The Minister of Defense in the Ansar Allah government in Yemen, Major General Muhammad Nasser Al-Atifi, confirmed that the next stage will witness broad developments.

Al-Atifi pointed out that the Yemeni armed forces have papers that they have not yet resorted to.

The minister warned the Americans and the British that what was coming would be “more painful, painful, and beyond all expectations” in the naval confrontations, as he put it, calling on what he called the “evil and criminal trio” of America, Britain, and Israel to absorb the recent speech of the group’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

For months, the Houthis have been launching attacks in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden on Israeli ships or those heading to their ports, and the American and British raids have not yet succeeded in stopping their threat to shipping lines.

These attacks greatly affected maritime traffic off the coast of Yemen, and prompted many shipping companies to avoid passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and to replace this passage, through which 12% of global maritime trade passes, by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in the southernmost tip of Africa. It causes higher shipping costs and longer delivery times.

In an attempt to deter the Houthis, American and British forces began launching strikes on their sites in Yemen since January 12.

The US Army alone carries out strikes from time to time that it says target sites or missiles and drones that were prepared for launch.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies