The Danish military frigate "Ever Hoeveledt", which previously headed to the Red Sea as part of the American-led coalition to confront Houthi attacks on Western (European) ships.

The Ansar Allah Houthi group announced on Sunday that it had launched five military operations against British, American, and Israeli ships off the coast of Yemen during the past 72 hours, after the US army announced yesterday the destruction of the group’s missiles and drones in the Red Sea.

In the latest round of attacks on shipping traffic in support of the Palestinians in the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the Houthi group said that it targeted “a British ship and a number of American frigates in the Red Sea,” and that it also launched attacks in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean “on two Israeli ships while they were sailing to Ports of occupied Palestine.

The military spokesman for the Houthi forces, Yahya Saree, said on Sunday, in a televised speech broadcast on the group’s Al-Masirah satellite channel, that “the naval forces targeted the British ship Hope Island in the Red Sea with a number of suitable naval missiles, and the hit was direct.”

He added: The naval forces targeted two Israeli ships that were heading to the ports of occupied Palestine. The first, the “MSC Grace F,” was targeted in the Indian Ocean, and the second, the “MSC Jena,” in the Arabian Sea. They were hit by a number of ballistic and winged missiles in an operation that achieved its goals successfully.

Saree reiterated that "the armed forces will continue to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean until the Israeli aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted."

Supporters of the Houthi group raise a symbolic missile in a solidarity march with Palestine in Sanaa (Reuters)  

Western information

The British maritime security company Ambrey had previously said that it had received information that a ship had been attacked on Sunday in the Gulf of Aden, about 102 nautical miles southwest of Mukalla in Yemen.

The company added, "We advised ships in the vicinity to be careful and report any suspicious movement." It did not indicate who was responsible for the attack, nor did it provide further details.

The British Maritime Trade Operations Authority said that a missile fell near a ship in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, 59 nautical miles southwest of the port of Aden in Yemen, but there was no damage to the ship or injuries among its personnel.

The authority added in its memorandum, “A missile was reported to have fallen into the water close to the left side of the stern of the ship... and there was no report of any damage to the ship. Reports also indicated that the crew is fine.”

The authority did not mention the source of the missile launch and did not provide further details. It is not yet clear whether the two attacks mentioned by Embry and the British Authority are the same attacks announced by the Houthis.

Ship tracking websites reported that Hope Island flies the Marshall Islands flag and has been in the Red Sea since last Friday. Two other tracking websites also reported that the ship "MSC Grace F" was flying the Panamanian flag, while the "Marine Traffic" website reported that the ship "MSC Jena" was also flying the Panamanian flag and that it had been spotted for the last time in the Gulf.

US Army

For its part, the US Central Command said that its forces destroyed a surface-to-air missile system in an area belonging to the Houthi group yesterday, Saturday, in addition to destroying a drone and missiles in the Red Sea region, stressing that “there were no casualties to our forces or coalition forces.”

These developments come after the attacks that hindered commercial navigation in the Red Sea stopped for days, and the Houthi attacks led to the disruption of global shipping traffic through the Suez Canal, forcing companies to change the course of their ships to longer and more expensive journeys through the southern tip of the African continent.

Since last November, the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, declaring that these attacks “come in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.”

The United States formed a multinational coalition aimed at protecting shipping in the Red Sea, and since mid-January, it has carried out repeated strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. Britain also participated in many of these strikes.

With the intervention of Washington and London and the tensions taking a noticeable escalation last January, the Houthi group announced that it now considered all American and British ships among its military targets.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies