DUBAI, January 22. /TASS/. Houthi rebels from the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement have attacked the Ocean Jazz ship identified as belonging to the US Navy in the Gulf of Aden, the movement’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said.

"The Yemeni naval forces conducted an operation in the Gulf of Aden against the US Ocean Jazz military cargo ship, which was attacked with anti-ship missiles," he wrote on his X (formerly known as Twitter) page.

According to the spokesman, the attack was staged in response to the US and UK strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. He warned that the Houthis would continue their attacks to prevent Israeli ships from calling at Palestinian ports until "the aggression against the Palestinian people and the blockade of the Gaza Strip are ended."

According to Marine Traffic, a maritime analytics provider, the US-flagged Ocean Jazz heavy load carrier left the Rota naval base in Cadiz, Spain on January 5. The last time it reported its location was on January 18 when it was near Egypt’s Hurghada in the northern part of the Red Sea. The online service does not provide data about the ship’s owner, operator or destination.

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 January 12, US and British aircraft, ships and submarines for the first time attacked targets belonging to the Ansar Allah movement in a number of Yemeni cities, including Sana’a and Hodeidah. US President Joe Biden claimed that the attack came in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. The US administration said that the strikes targeted the launch sites of rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as radar stations belonging to the Houthi rebels. Since then, the United States has been regularly striking Houthi missile launchers in Yemen. Following the January 12 operation, the United Kingdom said it was not planning to deliver more strikes.