AL-MUKALLA: A missile reportedly launched from a Houthi-controlled military base in Yemen on Thursday is thought to have exploded close to a ship in the Red Sea.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency was alerted to the offshore blast 57 nautical miles (106 km) west of Hodeidah.

Eyewitnesses in Yemen’s Ibb province, which is controlled by the militant group, claimed the missile had been fired from the Al-Hamza military facility in Al-Sabrah region on Thursday afternoon.

An alert sent to the UKMTO described “an explosion a distance off the vessel’s starboard side. Vessel and crew are safe.”

On Jan. 26, the Houthis launched a missile from the same location, but it missed its target and detonated near the launch site.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Houthis detained four civilians in Ibb’s Al-Maitam on suspicion of photographing their operatives prepping rockets to fire.

On Thursday morning, the US military launched strikes on Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, targeting 10 drones about to be fired at ships.

The US Central Command reported that its forces had destroyed a “Houthi UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) ground control station and 10 Houthi one-way UAVs” that were deemed a threat to commercial vessels and US Navy ships in the area.

In a statement, CENTCOM said: “US forces subsequently struck and destroyed the UAV ground control station and 10 one-way attack UAVs in self-defense.”

And three drones and a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis from Yemeni areas under their control were intercepted by the USS Carney on Wednesday evening.

The Houthis said recent US strikes had hit Al-Jabanah in Hodeidah’s west and Saada, the militia’s heartland in the north.

Over the past three months, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship and fired dozens of missiles and drones at commercial and navy vessels in the Red Sea, Bab El-Mandeb (the strait that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden), and the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to prevent Israel-linked ships from using maritime shipping lanes off Yemen and pressure Israel into lifting its siege of Gaza.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said that 165,429 Yemenis who had graduated from military training courses in the last two months would be sent to fight against Israel in Palestine. He also pledged to continue assaults on commercial and naval ships operating off Yemeni shores.

In a broadcasted speech, he claimed that American officials had sought help from China in trying to urge his group to stop its Red Sea attacks.

Al-Houthi said: “One indication of America’s failure is its effort to seek aid from China to mediate and persuade us to suspend our actions in favor of the Palestinian people.

“The American and British attacks are ineffective and will not diminish our military capability.”

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak on Thursday called on the EU to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization. During a meeting with members of the EU Political and Security Committee in Brussels, he noted the Iran-backed group’s derailment of UN-brokered peace efforts in Yemen, and crimes against Yemenis.

The minister reportedly encouraged the EU to form a “complete” collaboration with the Yemeni government to assist in the restoration of peace and stability in the war-torn country.