Dubai, United Arab Emirates — A possible attack Yemen’s Houthi rebels On Monday it attacked a ship further away from almost all previous attacks they launched in the Gulf of Aden, officials said, which could be part of a growing escalation by the group.
The attack occurs as The United States has sent the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower home. after an eight-month deployment in which he led the US response to Houthi attacks. Those attacks have sharply reduced shipping through the crucial route to markets in Asia, the Middle East and Europe in a campaign that the Houthis say will continue as long as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues.
The attack occurred Monday morning in the Gulf of Aden, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Nishtun, a city on the edge of Yemen that is near the border with Oman, according to the Trade Operations Center. British Army United Kingdom Maritime. That region has long been in the hands of forces allied with Yemen’s government-in-exile, which has fought the Houthis since the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
The attack occurred just northeast of the island of Socotra in Yemen, also in the hands of allies of the government in exile.
“The captain of a merchant ship reports an explosion very close to the ship,” the UKMTO said. “The crew are reported safe and the ship is heading to its next port of call.”
He offered no other immediate information about the attack.
Suspicion immediately fell on the Houthis, who did not immediately claim responsibility for the assault. It can take hours or even days for rebels to recognize your attacks. Somali pirates are also known to operate in the region, although they typically seize ships for ransom rather than launching attacks against them.
However, the attack occurred near the outer reaches of the Gulf of Aden, where it becomes the Arabian Sea and eventually the Indian Ocean. Of the more than 60 attacks launched by the Houthis since November and aimed specifically at ships, this would be one of the furthest away.
In May, A Portuguese-flagged container ship was attacked by a drone on the edge of the Arabian Sea in an attack claimed by the Houthis. However, the distance at which it was hit led experts to question whether Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, could have launched the attack. The Houthis have claimed responsibility for attacks later deemed to have been carried out by Iran, including the 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields that temporarily cut the kingdom’s energy production in half.
The Houthis have made a number of unproven claims that they have attacked ships at even greater ranges, although there has been no independent confirmation that any such attacks have taken place.
The rebels have fired other missiles and drones in their campaign that has killed a total of four sailors. They have seized a boat 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.
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, including those headed to Iran.
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