Houthis target American and Israeli ships in the Arabian Sea

The Houthis declared American and British ships military targets after recent airstrikes by the US and UK in Yemen.

Yemen’s Houthi group said late Tuesday that they targeted a total of three ships in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden using missiles and drones.

The vessels included an American ship, an Israeli ship and a third ship whose identity remains undisclosed. The strikes occurred when the vessels violated a ban by the group on access to Israeli ports.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree confirmed the attacks in a statement. He said the American ship Maersk Sentosa was “directly and accurately” hit in the Arabian Sea by a combination of ballistic and winged missiles.

Additionally, the Israeli ship MSC Patnaree was successfully targeted in the Gulf of Aden using drones, he added.

The third ship, the Marathopolis, faced drone strikes in the Arabian Sea, Saree said, without specifying the owner of the vessel.

Neither the US nor Israel have issued a response to the Houthi statement.

The Houthis have been targeting ships that are Israeli-owned, flagged, operated or headed to Israeli ports in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones in solidarity with Gaza, which has been under a devastating Israeli onslaught since Oct. 7 last year.

With the US and UK launching retaliatory airstrikes against Houthi sites inside Yemen, the Houthis declared that they consider all American and British ships military targets.