Dubai, United Arab Emirates — An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a commercial ship sailing through the Gulf of Aden but apparently caused no damage, authorities said Saturday, in the group’s latest attack on the shipping route.
The Houthi attack comes after the sinking this week of the ship Tutorwhich marked what appears to be a new escalation by the Iran-backed Houthis in their campaign of attacks on ships in the vital maritime corridor over the War between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the US military ordered USS Dwight D. EisenhowerThe aircraft carrier that led the US response to the Houthi attacks will return home after a tour that was extended twice.
The captain of the ship attacked on Friday night saw “explosions in the vicinity of the ship,” the British military’s Maritime Trade Operations center in the United Kingdom said. A subsequent briefing from the U.S.-supervised Joint Maritime Information Center said the ship initially reported two explosions on its port side and a third later.
“The ship was not hit or damaged,” the center said. “The ship and crew are reported to be safe and proceeding to their next port of call.”
The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s capital Sanaa since 2014, claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday night. Brig. General Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, identified the attacked ship as the bulk carrier Transworld Navigator.
The US military separately destroyed three unmanned ships in the Red Sea over the past day, Central Command said.
He The Houthis have launched more than 60 attacks. He targeted specific vessels and fired other missiles and drones in his campaign that has killed a total of four sailors. They have seized one ship and sunk two since November. A US-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes on May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, rebels say.
In March, The Belize-flagged Rubymar, carrying fertilizers, became the first to sink in the Red Sea. after filling with water for days following a rebel attack.
The Houthis have maintained that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war between Israel and Hamas.
He Eisenhowerbased in Norfolk, Virginia, returns home after a deployment of more than eight months in combat that the Navy says is its most intense since World War II. The one based in San Diego USS Theodore Roosevelt will take Eisenhower’s place after a scheduled exercise in the Indo-Pacific, said Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.
The Eisenhower had already reached the Mediterranean Sea, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ship’s movements. Flight tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed a Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopter associated with the Eisenhower flying over the Mediterranean off the coast of Port Said, Egypt, on Saturday night.
The Eisenhower had been repeatedly targeted by false claims of attacks by the Houthis during its stay in the Red Sea. On Saturday night, Saree claimed another attack on the aircraft carrier, but again provided no supporting evidence as the ship had already left the area. Central Command called the claim “categorically false.”
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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
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