Two vessels not badly damaged but incident casts doubt on success of UK-US strikes on Yemen missile sites
The Houthis say they have successfully targeted a British and a US ship in the Red Sea, casting doubt on the effectiveness of three waves of US-UK strikes on missile sites belonging to the group in Yemen.
Neither of the two ships were badly damaged but the incident will underscore the need for commercial ships either to pay higher insurance premiums or take longer, more expensive routes to avoid the threat of Houthi attacks.
The US military undertook a daylight raid on the port of Hodeidah on Monday without UK support.
A Houthi spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a statement on Tuesday: “We carried out two military operations, the first targeted an American ship (Star Nasia), and the other targeted a British ship (Morning Tide).”
The security company Ambrey reported earlier on Tuesday that a British ship flying the Barbados flag “suffered minor damage to its port” 57 nautical miles from the coast of Hodeidah, without any casualties. The ship continued on its way.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said just after midnight GMT on Tuesday that it had received a report of a projectile fired at the port side of a ship west of Hodeidah and that a small craft was seen nearby.
The projectile passed over the deck and caused slight damage to the bridge windows, but the vessel and crew were safe and proceeded on the planned passage, it added.
