DUBAI, August 4. /TASS/. The Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement have hit the Groton vessel in the Gulf of Aden with use of ballistic missiles, the movement’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said.
"As past of the fourth stage of the escalation <…>, Yemen’s naval and missile forces conducted a joint operation and attacked the Groton vessel in the Gulf of Aden with the use of several ballistic missiles," he told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah television channel.
According to Sarea, the Groton container ship was attacked for "violating the ban on the passage to the ports of occupied Palestine."
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. Since mid-November, dozens of civilian ships have been attacked by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
In response to Ansar Allah's actions, the US authorities announced the creation of an international coalition and preparations for an operation codenamed Prosperity Guardian, expected to ensure freedom of navigation and protection of ships in the Red Sea. Since then, the United States and the United Kingdom have been regularly delivering strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.