Another merchant ship is struck by a missile while passing Yemen – after Houthis warned they will expand attacks to include British and US vessels in the Red Sea.
A Malta flagged, Greek-owned cargo shit was reportedly hit in the Red Sea. The ship, having allegedly visited Israel previously, was considered a legitimate target by the Houthis.
‘A Malta-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier was reportedly targeted and impacted with a missile while transiting the southern Red Sea northbound,’ maritime risk management company Ambrey said today in an alert.
The ship, which has visited Israel since the outbreak of war in Gaza and was headed to Suez, changed course and headed to port after the incident, Ambrey said.
It follows a string of attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.Â
On Sunday, US forces shot down a Houthi cruise missile targeting an American destroyer, and on Monday a US-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman was hit by another rebel missile.
The missile launches followed Friday’s US and UK strikes on scores of sites in rebel-held Yemen in retaliation for the Red Sea attacks which have disrupted shipping in the vital waterway.
The Houthis have been targeting what they deemed Israeli-linked vessels but after Friday’s strikes, they declared US and British interests ‘legitimate targets’.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a maritime security agency run by the British navy, also reported an ‘incident’ in an area northwest of Saleef in Yemen, without giving further details.
The Houthis have warned that British and American ships in the Red Sea have now become ‘legitimate targets’, following joint strikes against military sites run by the group recently described by Joe Biden as ‘terrorists.’
The group’s spokesperson, Nasruldeen Amer, told Al Jazeera that it was willing to take military action against ships from the West: ‘The ship doesn’t necessarily have to be heading to Israel for us to target it; it is enough for it to be American.’
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