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Houthis strike US ship in Gulf of Aden — statement

Yahya Saria, a spokesman for Yemen's Ansar Allah rebel movement said the attack came in response to US and UK strikes on Ansar Allah facilities in Yemen

© Valerij Sharifulin/TASS

DUBAI, January 19. /TASS/. Yemeni Houthis have fired anti-ship missiles at a US ship, the Chem Ranger, in the Gulf of Aden, said Yahya Saria, a spokesman for Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthi) rebel movement.

"The naval forces of Yemen have carried out an operation in the Gulf of Aden, during which a US ship, the Chem Ranger, was attacked with several anti-ship missiles," Saria said in a live broadcast of the Houthi-owned Al Masirah television.

He said one of the missiles directly hit the vessel.

Saria said the attack came in response to US and UK strikes on Ansar Allah facilities in Yemen.

According to the Marine Traffic service, which provides real-time information on the movements and the current location of ships, Chem Ranger is a Marshall Islands-flagged ship that transports chemicals from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to Kuwait.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said at least two incidents occurred off the coast of Yemen on Thursday night. The first attack took place around 85 nautical miles southeast of Yemeni city of Ash Shihr.

Meanwhile, Ambrey, a UK-based maritime security company, said that four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) approached and circled a Marshall Islands-flagged, US-owned tanker approximately 87 miles southeast of Yemen's Mukalla.

One more incident, registered by UKMTO, occurred 115 nautical miles southeast of Yemeni port of Aden. According to Ambrey, drones also approached a tanker flying the flag of the Marshall Islands.

Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip last year, 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 2023.

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