DUBAI, January 18. /TASS/. The Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement have delivered a missile strike on the US Genco Picardy ship in the Gulf of Aden, the movement’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said.

"The Yemeni naval forces conducted an operation, during which the US Genco Picardy ship was attacked with several anti-ship missiles in the Gulf of Aden," he told the Houthi-controlled Al Masirah television channels.

According to the spokesman, the attack was staged in response to the US and UK strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. "The Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to deliver strikes on all sources of threat in the Arabian and Red Seas as part of their legal right to defend our country and continue supporting the oppressed Palestinian people," Sarea warned.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said earlier that a done attack on a vessel some 60 nautical miles off the Yemeni port of Aden had been followed by a fire. According Ambrey, a British company dealing with maritime security issues, the drone attack targeted a bulk carrier flying the flag of the Marshall Islands.

According to the Marine Traffic, a maritime analytics provider, the Genco Picardy flying the flag of the Marshall Island is on its way from Egypt’s Safaga to Tuticorin in India. The ship reported its location last time on January 13 when it was in the central part of the Red Sea. No data on the ship’s owner and operator are available on Marine Traffic.

Sarea did not disclose how the Houthi had identified the ship as belonging to the US.

Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. According to the US Defense Department’s Central Command’s (CENTCOM) estimates, the Yemeni rebel group has attacked more than 20 vessels and civilian ships in the Red Sea since mid-November.

On the night of January 12, the United States and the United Kingdom delivered air strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, using aircraft, warships and submarines. US President Joe Biden said the military action was ordered in response to "unprecedented Houthi attacks" on shipping in the Red Sea and that the strikes were delivered in self-defense.