Yemen’s Houthi rebels take credit for attacking ships in Red Sea

By AFP and ToI Staff 3 December 2023, 7:03 pm

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File: The guided-missile destroyer USS Carney in Souda Bay, Greece. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Bill Dodge/US Navy via AP)

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels say they have attacked two ships off the Yemeni coast, adding the “Israeli” vessels were targeted over the war in Gaza.

In a statement posted on social media, the Houthis say they carried out an “operation against two Israeli ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait,” a strategic waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, targeting the first with a “missile and the second ship with a drone.”

There was no immediation confirmation that there was any Israeli connection to the two ships. The Pentagon said earlier that a US Navy ship and a number of commercial ships had been attacked.

The Houthis have attacked others ships in recent weeks, some with ties to Israeli businessmen.