Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack on a “British oil tanker” in the Red Sea, which security authorities and the US State Department had reported the day before.
“The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces conducted an operation against the British oil tanker Pollux in the Red Sea using a large number of naval missiles,” said their military spokesman Yahya Saree.
The British maritime safety authority UKMTO and the security company Ambrey, which specializes in maritime transport, reported an explosion near a ship off the town of Mokha on Thursday.
“The ship and her crew are safe,” the UKMTO was told, while minor damage was reported in Ambrey.
The U.S. State Department later said a missile fired from Yemen hit a “Panamanian-flagged vessel en route to India that was carrying crude oil.”
Since November, the Houthis have increased attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, forcing many shipowners to bypass this maritime zone important for international trade.
These Tehran-backed insurgents claim to be attacking ships linked to Israel in “solidarity” with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is waging war on Hamas following the Palestinian Islamist movement's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israeli soil leads.
Since January, the Houthis have also targeted British and American ships in response to US and UK attacks against their positions supposedly “defending” freedom of navigation.
The Houthis, described as terrorists by Washington, claimed responsibility on Thursday for another attack on “a British ship” in the Gulf of Aden.
They reiterated on Friday that they “will not hesitate to conduct and expand military operations in the defense and enforcement of Yemen.” [leur] Solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Rebels control the capital Sanaa and large areas in northwest Yemen, a country that has been mired in civil war since 2014.