4 suspected Houthi attacks target a ship off Yemen, authorities say
Authorities say four suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Four suspected attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, including one that saw private security guards shoot and destroy a bomb-loaded drone boat, authorities said Friday.
The Houthis didn't immediately claim the assaults, though they follow a monthslong campaign by the rebels targeting shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Since November, Houthi attacks have disrupted the $1 trillion of goods that flow annually through the region, while also sparking the most intense combat the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II.
After a recent two-week pause, their attacks resumed following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, amid concerns of a wider regional war. Iran backs the Houthis as part of what it calls a regional “Axis of Resistance.”
“The operations are ongoing — our operations toward occupied Palestine to target the Israeli enemy, our operations at sea, the inevitable forthcoming response, as well as coordination with the axis in any joint operations,” warned the Houthi's secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, in a speech Thursday. “The decision to respond is a collective decision, at the level of the entire axis and at the level of each front individually.”
In the first attack, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded close to the oil tanker Delta Blue on Thursday, according to the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center. Two smaller
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