Two suspected Houthi attacks hit ships in the Red Sea

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted ships in the Red Sea on July 15 as a new U.S. aircraft carrier approached the region to ensure security along the crucial international trade route that has been under attack since war between Israel and Hamas broke out nine months ago.

The captain of the first ship attacked reported an attack by three smaller ships off the coast of Al Hudaydah in Yemen, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said. Two of the ships were manned, another unmanned.

The “reported unmanned small boat collided with the vessel twice and the two manned small boats fired at the vessel,” the UKMTO reported. “The vessel took self-protection measures and after 15 minutes the small boat aborted the attack.”

The captain later reported two separate waves of missile attacks, approximately 45 minutes apart, exploding in the immediate vicinity of the ship.

Later on July 15, another incident occurred, also off the coast of Al Hudaydah, in which a vessel was attacked by a suspected Houthi unmanned aircraft. The aircraft “impacted on the port side, causing damage and light smoke,” the UKMTO reported.

UKMTO WARNING
INCIDENT 100 – ATTACK – UPDATE 001https://t.co/fX3hWupi7g#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/3qFIBHp6fm

— UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) July 15, 2024

Both ships and their entire crew are safe and sound, the UKMTO said in a warning to seafarers. The names and flags of the ships were not initially known.

The Houthis did not immediately comment on the incidents. However, it can take hours or even days for them to admit an attack.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is approaching the Middle East to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which spent months in the Red Sea fighting the Houthis.

The US Central Command announced in a statement on July 14 that its forces had destroyed two Houthi unmanned aerial vehicles and an unmanned surface vessel in the Red Sea.

The rebels have attacked more than 70 ships with missiles and drones as part of their campaign, killing four sailors. Since November, they have hijacked one ship and sunk two.

In June, the number of Houthi attacks on merchant ships rose to levels not seen since December, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, a coalition under the U.S. Navy. U.S.-led airstrikes have targeted the Houthis since January. A series of attacks on May 30 killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others, according to the rebels.

The Houthis claim that their attacks target ships with links to Israel, the US or Britain because the rebels support the militant Hamas group in its war against Israel. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war – including some bound for Iran, which supports the Houthis.

Last week, the Houthis said they fired missiles at a U.S. container ship in the Gulf of Aden, the closest rebel attack to a U.S. container ship near the Arabian Sea, authorities said. The JMIC identified the ship as the Maersk Sentosa. Danish shipping company Maersk confirmed to the Associated Press that its ship had been attacked.

Maersk ranks 5th on Transport Topics’ list of the largest global freight forwarders and 28th on TT’s Top 100 list of North America’s largest logistics companies.