Suspected Houthi attack targets a ship in the Gulf of Aden, while Iraqi-claimed attack targets Eilat
the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower after an eight-month deployment in which the aircraft carrier led the American response to the Houthi assaults. Those attacks have reduced shipping drastically through the route crucial to Asian, Middle East and European markets in a campaign the Houthis say will continue as long as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Houthis faced allegations that they seized commercial aircraft that brought back pilgrims from the Hajj amid a widening economic dispute between the rebels and Yemen’s exiled government. The ship attack happened off the coast of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The captain “of a merchant vessel reported a missile impacted the water in close proximity to the vessel," the UKMTO said.
The Joint Maritime Information Center, which is overseen by the U.S. Navy, later identified the vessel as the Saint Kitts- and Nevis-flagged bulk carrier Lila Lisbon. “The vessel was not hit and all crew on board are safe," the center said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said early Wednesday that a drone “fell off the coast of Eilat." It said the drone was monitored “throughout the incident and it did not cross into Israeli territory." The Houthis have targeted Eilat before with drones and missiles. However, an Iranian-backed umbrella group known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed the attack. That group recently began what it and the Houthis describe as joint operations over the Israel-Hamas war.
The Houthis did not claim the ship attack, but it can take the rebels hours or even days before they acknowledge their assaults. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen.
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