DUBAI, August 7. /TASS/. The Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement said that they have hit two US warships and a container vessel in the Red Sea.
According to their statement, they conducted "a military operation against the American USS Cole destroyers in the Gulf of Aden with the use of several drones." Apart from that they hit another US destroyer, the USS Laboon with the use of ballistic missiles.
The Houthis also attacked the Conship Ono container ship in the Red Sea with the use of ballistic missiles and drones. They claimed that the commercial ship was attacked for violating their ban on the passage of ships to Israeli ports across the Red Sea.
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 March, the movement’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said that his supporters were determined to attack Israel-linked ships traveling across the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. Later, the Houthis announced the "fourth stage of escalation" and warned about attacks on Israel-bound ships wherever they can reach them, including in the Mediterranean Sea.