(Dubai) The US military announced early Thursday that it had shot down 11 drones of the Yemeni Houthi rebels the day before who had earlier claimed responsibility for a series of operations targeting ships off the Gulf of Aden.
On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed to have attacked three commercial ships and a military ship off the Gulf of Aden, at the southern tip of Yemen, in the morning using drones and ballistic missiles.
Early Thursday, the US military Middle East Command (Centcom) said in a statement published on X that it destroyed three drones Wednesday morning, one near the Gulf of Aden and the other in the adjacent Red Sea, then intercepted eight other Houthi drones in the evening which presented “an imminent threat to merchant ships and the coalition”.
Since November, the Houthis have carried out dozens of attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, where 12% of world trade passes. First saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel, they then broadened their targets to ships associated with the United States and the United Kingdom, in retaliation for strikes carried out in January by Washington and London against their positions in Yemen.
The rebels claim to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, ravaged by a deadly war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas for six months.
These attacks have driven up insurance costs for ships transiting the Red Sea and led many shipping companies to prefer the much longer passage around the southern tip of the African continent.
Israel’s main ally, Washington set up a multinational coalition in December to “protect” maritime traffic without managing to stop the attacks.