(Dubai) The Houthis claimed on Saturday to have carried out an attack on a merchant ship off the coast of Yemen, after a multinational naval force earlier reported that a Liberian-flagged vessel was targeted by two ballistic missiles that exploded nearby.
“The Yemeni armed forces […] carried out a military operation against the ship Groton “in the Gulf of Aden,” Yemeni Houthi rebel spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement.
He added that the attack had “hit the ship in a precise and direct manner”, stressing that it was the second attack on the boat “after the first on August 3”.
Earlier on Saturday, the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), run by a multinational naval coalition including the United States and European countries, based in Bahrain, reported that the ship Groton had been “targeted by two ballistic missiles 130 nautical miles east of Aden,” the major city in southern Yemen.
He said the first missile “fell 50 metres from the front of the ship” and the “second 50 metres from the rear”, adding that the ship continued on its way without suffering any damage.
The attack was also reported by the British maritime security agency UKMTO.
The JMIC believes that “the Groton was targeted because of recent visits by other ships of the same company to Israeli ports.”
Since November, the Houthis have carried out attacks off the coast of Yemen against ships they believe to be linked to Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the context of the war in the Gaza Strip.
The attacks disrupted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a vital maritime zone for global trade, prompting the United States to deploy a multinational naval coalition and strike rebel targets in Yemen, sometimes with British assistance.