Sana’a, Feb 6 (EFE).- Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday said that they had launched missile strikes on US and British vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation to the recent bombings carried out by these countries against the Iran-backed group in Yemen.
In a statement, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea stated that the first missile targeted the US ship Star Nasia, while the second struck the British vessel Morning Tide.
Sarea said that the ships were attacked with naval missiles and the “strikes were direct and accurate.”
The spokesperson warned that the group’s Red Sea attacks would continue in response to “oppression of the Palestinian people” and the “aggression” by the US and UK against the Houthis in Yemen.
He vowed that the Houthis would undertake “further military operations” against “all hostile American-British targets” in the Arabian and Red Seas, citing their right to defend Yemen.
These attacks, he claimed, fall “within the right to defend our beloved Yemen and its people.”
The spokesperson stressed their naval forces would particularly continue to target all Israeli ships and those en route to the ports of “occupied Palestine until the siege is lifted and the aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is stopped.”
The statement by the Houthis, who control regions in northern and western Yemen since 2014, comes just hours after the British navy reported an attack on a merchant ship, believed to be British, in the Red Sea.
The United Kingdom Maritime and Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said in a statement that the incident occurred 57 nautical miles west of the Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah.
According to the agency, the vessel’s captain reported that a projectile was fired at the ship’s port side, causing “slight damage” to the bridge window.
“The vessel and crew are safe, vessel proceeding on planned age,” the agency said.
UKMTO said authorities were “investigating” the incident, and vessels in the region were “advised to transit with caution.”
These recent attacks in the Red Sea coincide with the visit to the region of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken, who visited Saudi Arabia on Monday, was scheduled to arrive in Cairo on Tuesday on his fifth tour to the Middle East, with the aim of securing a ceasefire, negotiating the release of hostages in Gaza, and preventing further escalation of the conflict in the region. EFE
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