DUBAI, March 19. /TASS/. Yemeni Houthis from the rebel Ansar Allah movement have attacked a tanker for the transportation of liquefied petroleum gas MADO in the Red Sea. They identified the tanker as a ship belonging to the US, the movement's military spokesman Yahya Saria has said.

"The Yemeni Navy carried out an operation using several anti-ship missiles that targeted the US vessel MADO in the Red Sea," Saria told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel.

A spokesman for the movement also said the Houthis attacked the southern Israeli city of Eilat with cruise missiles. The Israel Defense Forces earlier reported that a "suspicious aerial target" crashed in an unpopulated area north of Eilat on Monday.

Following the escalation of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Ansar Allah movement has warned that it will bombard Israeli territory and will not allow associated ships to pass through the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait as long as the operation in the Palestinian enclave continued. Since last November, the Houthis have attacked dozens of civilian ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. On March 14, the movement's leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said his supporters intended to attack Israeli-linked ships traveling across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope.

In response to the actions of Ansar Allah, the US authorities announced the creation of an international coalition and the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian to ensure freedom of shipping and protection of ships in the Red Sea. Subsequently, the armed forces of Britain and the United States began to regularly strike rebel military facilities in various provinces of Yemen.