File image is used for representational purpose.
| Photo Credit: AP

Yemen’s Houthis said on Friday (October 19, 2024) they targeted a ship, which they identified as Megalopolis, in the Arabian Sea with drones, without specifying a date.

Megalopolis, a Malta-flagged container ship, is currently en route to Oman’s Salalah port, according to LSEG data.

Yahya Saree, the military spokesperson of the Houthi militants, said in a televised statement that the vessel was targeted for violating the group’s ban on entering the ports of “occupied Palestine”.

Maritime agencies have not reported any incidents involving the named vessel.

Houthi fighters in Yemen have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November 2023 and say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.

In their previous attack on shipping, they struck a Liberia-flagged tanker with missiles and drones last week.

Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Saturday they had attacked a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, as a multinational naval force said two missiles exploded near a Liberia-flagged vessel.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a military operation targeting the ship (GROTON) in the Gulf of Aden,” Huthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement.

He said the ship had been hit and that it was the second time it had been attacked after a similar incident on August 3.

The Yemeni rebels have waged a campaign against international shipping passing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that they say is in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Saturday, the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC), run by a Western naval coalition, reported that the Groton had been targeted by two ballistic missiles when it was 130 nautical miles east of Aden.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, run by Britain’s Royal Navy, said the captain reported that all crew were safe and the Groton was “proceeding to next port of call”.

The Houthi attacks, targeting ships that they say are linked to Israel, have disrupted traffic in a maritime zone that is vital to global trade.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Central Command said Saturday that U.S. forces destroyed a Huthi drone and an uncrewed surface vessel in rebel-controlled areas of Yemen over the past 24 hours.

“It was determined these systems presented a clear and imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces,” CENTCOM said in a statement on X.