Houthis Attack Merchant Ship In Red Sea, Claim To Have Struck Vessel In Indian Ocean Too

A merchant ship was damaged in a drone attack by suspected Houthis in the Red Sea near Yemen on Sunday. Over the past several months, vessels in the Red Sea have come under repeated attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who say they are carrying out the attacks on behalf of Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.

According to an AP report, the latest attack happened at dawn, west of the Yemeni port city of Hodeida, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre, run by the UK Royal Navy, said. The vessel did sustain damage but the people on board “were reported safe”.

The attack was on Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Transworld Navigator. The extent of damage is not yet clear, but UKMTO said that an investigation was on.

The AFP quoted Houthis' military spokesman Yahya Saree as saying in a statement on Sunday that the rebel forces had targeted two ships, one in the Red Sea and the other in the Indian Ocean.

He said the operation targeting Transworld Navigator used an unmanned aerial system and "led to a direct hit".

The Transworld Navigator “most recently docked in Malaysia and was en route to Egypt", the US Central Command said. “This marks the fourth attack by Iranian-backed Houthis on the” vessel.

Later on Sunday, the UKMTO said it received a distress call from a second vessel, this one off Yemen's southeastern coast, which had "suffered flooding that cannot be contained".

The UKMTO did not specify what caused the incident.

"This has forced the master and crew to abandon the ship. They have been recovered by an assisting ship," the UKMTO said in an incident report, adding that the flooded vessel "remains adrift”.

The Houthis have launched more than 60 attacks targeting specific vessels and fired off other missiles and drones in their campaign, killing a total of four sailors. They have seized one vessel and sunk two since November.