Announce The Houthis Hitting an American warship and forcing two American merchant ships to retreat south The Red Seain the latest attack launched by the group in the region of strategic importance.
The military spokesman for Ansar Allah Houthis, Yahya Saree, said in a statement read yesterday evening, Wednesday, that the movement’s forces clashed with American destroyers and warships in both the Gulf of Aden andBab al-MandabHe added that the clash lasted for more than two hours, during which they used a number of ballistic missiles.
Sarie announced that “an American warship was directly hit and the two American commercial ships were forced to retreat and return,” in addition to “the arrival of a number of ballistic missiles to their targets despite the warships’ attempts to intercept them,” as he put it.
American denial
For his part, Strategic Policy Coordinator at the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that the Houthis fired 3 missiles at ships in the Red Sea, two of which were intercepted, while the third missed its target and fell into the sea.
Kirby added that the attack “clearly confirms that the Houthis still intend to carry out these attacks, which means that we will also clearly have to do what we must to protect navigation,” as he put it.
For its part, Reuters quoted a US official as saying that no ship was hit during the Houthi attack yesterday, Wednesday.
The official – who requested to remain anonymous – explained that “the Houthi missiles did not hit any American warships or commercial ships today.”
This comes in the midst of tensions taking place in the Red Sea region, where the Houthis are carrying out attacks on commercial ships that they say are linked to Israel, in support of the Palestinians in GazaWhile the United States, with the participation of Britain, is trying to deter them by launching strikes on their military sites, while the Houthis stressed that these strikes will not deter them from continuing the attacks.
Following the Western strikes, the Houthis began targeting American and British ships in the region, considering that the interests of the two countries had become “legitimate targets.”
Suspending the transit of American ships
Yesterday, Wednesday, the giant Danish shipping company Maersk announced in a statement that two ships belonging to its American subsidiary “reported seeing explosions nearby, while the US Navy accompanying them intercepted several projectiles.”
The company indicated that “the US Navy returned the two ships that were carrying supplies for the US army and accompanied them to the Gulf of Aden,” stressing that the crews and goods were not harmed, and indicating that it would suspend the crossing of ships belonging to its US unit from the Red Sea.
The US military announced the destruction of two Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen at dawn on Wednesday, which it said posed an “imminent threat” to maritime navigation in the region.
The Houthi attacks are hindering navigation in the Red Sea, through which 12% of global trade passes, and have caused the cost of transportation to double as a result of shipping companies diverting their ships to… Cape of Good Hope In the far south of Africa, which prolongs the journey between Asia and Europe for about a week.
