Suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targets ship in southern Red Sea, officials say

Houthi rebels target ship in Red Sea amid escalating tensions over Israel-Hamas conflict, disrupting global trade routes.

A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the southern reaches of the Red Sea early Tuesday (August 13, 2024), officials said, the latest in their campaign of assaults over the Israel-Hamas war.

The attack comes as Yemen’s main sponsor, Iran, weighs a possible retaliatory attack against Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh in late July, which has renewed fears of a wider regional war breaking out across the Mideast.

The Houthi assaults have already disrupted the $1 trillion of goods that flow annually through the maritime route crucial to trade between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, while also sparking the most intense combat the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II.

“The attack happened around 115km (70 miles) south of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida,” the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said. The attack saw an explosive detonate near the ship, though “the vessel and crew are reported safe,” the UKMTO said.

The private security firm Ambrey similarly reported the attack, saying the ship saw “two ‘close-proximity’ explosions.”

Though the Houthis didn’t immediately claim the attack, it sometimes can take hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. They’ve also claimed others that apparently haven’t happened.

The Houthis have targeted more than 70 vessels with missiles and drones in a campaign that has killed four sailors since the start of the war in Gaza last October. They have seized one vessel and sunk two in the time since. Other missiles and drones have been either intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or splashed down before reaching their targets.