Houthis Target Ship Transiting Bab El-Mandeb Strait
A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi militias targeted a ship in the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday.
The attack targeted a ship south of Mocha, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said. The captain reported explosions off the ship’s side.
The “vessel and all crew are safe,” the UKMTO said. “The vessel is proceeding to its next port of call.”
The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea corridor since November.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they launched missiles at a US-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden. The Joint Maritime Information Centre, which is overseen by the US Navy, identified the ship as the Maersk Sentosa and warned it was the longest-distance attack seen from Yemen by the Houthis since November.
In June, the number of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels increased to levels not seen since December, according to the JMIC. US-led airstrikes have targeted the Houthis since January.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is due to enter the Middle East region and replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had spent months in the Red Sea to counter the Houthis.
The US Navy has not offered any new details on the Roosevelt’s location, though an image published by the Navy put the carrier in the South China Sea last Friday.
