The Yemeni Houthi militant group has reportedly fired two ballistic missiles that struck a Palau-flagged, British-owned cargo ship south-east of the Yemeni port city of Aden, as the U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen has demonstrably failed to deter the Houthi rebels’ continued assault on cargo shipping in the Red Sea corridor.
“A vessel caught fire after being hit by two missiles southeast of the Yemeni port of Aden on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
It comes as Houthi militants have escalated attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The militants who control large parts of Yemen have been targeting merchant ships in response to Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which started in October. The United States and the UK have formed an international coalition to protect navigation in the area.
Thursday’s incident took place 70 nautical miles from Aden, and the coalition forces are responding, according to the UKMTO, which is a monitoring service operated by the British Navy. An investigation is underway, it added. There has been no official information so far on the type of the vessel that was struck, damage, or casualties.
According to the Associated Press, ship-tracking data helped identify the vessel as a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander that had been coming from Thailand bound for Egypt”. -RT
While American and British commercial shipping had not been targeted in the Red Sea and surrounding waters prior to the United States and the United Kingdom launched their first round of missile strikes on Houthi facilities on January 12th, since that date, the U.S. and UK forces have carried out 278 strikes in Yemen.