Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted ship, two US destroyers in Red Sea

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Wednesday that it had targeted a ship identified as the Contship Ono with ballistic missiles in the Red Sea, as well as two US destroyers heading northwards in the waterway.

The Houthi air force targeted US destroyer Cole with a number of drones and the US destroyer Laboon with a number of ballistic missiles, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.

The Liberia-flagged container ship Contship Ono was targeted with ballistic missiles and drones in the Red Sea, Saree added.

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.

This has forced shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and has stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilize the Middle East.

The frequency of the attacks, however, appeared to have decreased after Israel hit military targets near Yemen’s Hodeidah port on July 20, killing six people and wounding more than 80, a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed group hit Israeli economic hub Tel Aviv.

On Aug.4, the Yemeni group claimed the first attack on shipping lanes in two weeks since the Israeli attack by targeting the Liberia-flagged container vessel MV Groton in the Gulf of Aden.