Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile Thursday that missed a container ship travelling through the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the US military said, the latest attack threatening shipping in the crucial maritime chokepoint. The seaborne assaults by the Iran-backed Houthis have been part of their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea and launched drones and missiles targeting Israel. In recent days, they have threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel, though several vessels targeted had no apparent link.<\/p>\n
The missile fired Thursday splashed harmlessly in the water near the Maersk Gibraltar, a Hong Kong-flagged container ship that had been travelling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the US military\u2019s Central Command said. The \u201cMaersk Gibraltar was hailed (on the radio) by the Houthis, who threatened further missile attacks,\u201d Central Command said. \u201cWhile this incident did not involve U.S. forces, we continue to closely monitor the situation. These attacks continue to threaten international maritime security.\u201d The British military\u2019s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors Mideast shipping lanes, put out an alert warning of an incident in the strait, which separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Later Thursday, a Houthi military spokesman claimed without offering evidence that the rebels had hit the Maersk Gibraltar with a drone strike after its crew failed to respond to the rebels\u2019 call to surrender. The spokesman for the Iran-backed fighters, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, also alleged the vessel had been heading to Israel \u2013 again without providing evidence to support the claim. Maersk, one of the world\u2019s biggest shippers, issued a statement reporting the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crew and vessel are reported safe,\u201d Maersk said. \u201cThe safety of our crew and vessel is our top priority and all possible security measures are being taken to ensure we remove them from harm\u2019s way.\u201d The company added: \u201cThe recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Bab el-Mandab Strait are extremely concerning. The current situation puts seafarer lives at risk and is unsustainable for global trade. As it cannot be solved by the global shipping industry on its own, we call on political action to ensure a swift de-escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the private intelligence firm Ambrey said the ship had also been called over the radio by \u201can entity claiming to be the Yemeni Navy\u2019 ahead of the missile being launched towards the vessel.\u201d \u201cThe Yemeni Navy\u2019 demanded the vessel alter course to head for Yemen,\u201d Ambrey said and assessed the entity to be the Houthis. On Wednesday, two missiles fired from Houthi-held territory missed a commercial tanker loaded with Indian-manufactured jet fuel near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Also near the strait, a missile fired by Houthis on Monday night slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n
Global shipping has increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict \u2013 even during a brief pause in fighting during which Hamas exchanged hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The collapse of the truce and the resumption of a punishing Israeli ground offensive and airstrikes on Gaza have raised the risk of more sea attacks. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound shipments, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it. An estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually.<\/p>\n
In November, Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. The rebels still hold the vessel near the port city of Hodeida. Separately, a container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean. A separate, tentative cease-fire between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of Yemen\u2019s exiled government has held for months despite that country\u2019s long war. That\u2019s raised concerns that any wider conflict in the sea \u2013 or a potential reprisal strike from Western forces \u2013 could reignite those tensions in the Arab world\u2019s poorest nation.<\/p>\n
Also Thursday, unknown attackers boarded the Malta-flagged bulk carrier Ruen, managed by Navigation Maritime Bulgare, in the Arabian Sea off the Yemeni island of Socotra, Ambrey and the UKMTO said. Bulgarian media acknowledged the ship\u2019s seizure and said the ship\u2019s 18-member crew hailed from Angola, Bulgaria and Myanmar. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile Thursday that missed a container ship travelling through the crucial Bab el-Mandeb Strait,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":17135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[5152,5146,222,5147,5149,1380,5151,773,535,1418,1514,5150,4290,536,3513,534,5148,1738,771],"class_list":["post-17134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-affected","tag-bab-el-mandeb-strait","tag-ballistic-missile","tag-container-ship","tag-crucial","tag-gaza","tag-global-trade","tag-houthi-rebels","tag-iran","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-jews","tag-maritime-security","tag-muslims","tag-palestine","tag-red-sea","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shipping-lanes","tag-us-military","tag-yemen"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}