The US Navy was responding to a request for assistance from a Maersk container ship. After this attack, the shipping giant announced that it would suspend the transit of its boats through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea for 48 hours.
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US Navy helicopters sank three boats of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which had attacked a container ship in the Red Sea, the US military announced on Sunday December 31. After Houthi fire targeting American helicopters, the latter “retaliated in self-defense, sinking three of the four small ships, and killing the crews”, assured the American military Command in the Middle East (Centcom) in a press release. The latter specified that the fourth boat had “flee the area”.
The US Navy, Centcom said, was responding to a request for assistance from the Maersk Hangzhou, a Danish-owned and operated Singapore-flagged container ship, which had reported being attacked for the second time in 24 hours while sailing in the Red Sea. The ship had previously been targeted by two ballistic missiles launched from Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory, which the US military shot down.
Maersk pauses the transit of its ships
After this new attack, the Danish maritime transport giant Maersk announced that it would suspend the transit of its fleet through a strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea for 48 hours. Since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Houthis have repeatedly targeted ships traveling through the vital Red Sea shipping lane, with strikes they say are intended to support Palestinians in Gaza.
The attacks jeopardize a transit route that carries up to 12% of global trade, prompting the United States to establish a multinational naval force earlier this month to protect ships from the sea Red.
