AL-MUKALLA: Multiple attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia caused minor damage to a commercial ship bound for Oman in the Red Sea on Thursday morning in the latest in a series of incidents.
The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations said it received an alert from the master of a ship sailing southwest of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah that an unidentified projectile had struck the ship, causing damage but no fire or casualties.
Hours later, the UK’s marine agency sent two messages saying that the master had also reported three unidentified projectiles exploding near the ship, causing no damage.
Ambrey, another UK marine security agency, gave the same information about the incident off Yemen’s Hodeidah, identifying the attacked ship as a chemical tanker flying the Liberian flag and traveling from Saudi Arabia to Oman.
The Houthis have sunk two ships since November, seizing one with its crew, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at more than 100 ships in the Red Sea and other international shipping lanes in a campaign that the Yemeni militia claims is in support of Palestinians under attack from Israel.
The Houthis say that the group is only targeting Israeli-linked ships or ships owned by companies that do business with Israeli ports, in order to put pressure on Israel to end its war in the Gaza Strip.
Critics say that the Houthis are using public outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza to recruit new fighters, increase public support, and divert attention away from the militia’s failures to improve public services and pay public salaries.
The news comes a day after the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said that the number of people abducted by the Houthis for celebrating the 1962 revolution had surpassed 434, and that the Houthis had banned people from celebrating the revolution in areas under the militia’s control.
The Yemeni rights group has demanded that the Houthis stop harassing those who celebrate the event; bring operatives who abducted those people to justice; and that the UN’s Yemen envoy, the US’ Yemen envoy, and international rights organizations put pressure on the Houthis to release the abductees.
The organization said: “The network (has) urged the Houthi militias to halt their brutal attacks and immediately release all those abducted for celebrating Yemeni Revolution Day.”
The Houthis have abducted hundreds of Yemenis who were commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the 1962 revolution, as well as suppressing celebratory gatherings in Sanaa, Ibb, and other Yemeni areas.
Meanwhile, Hamid Abdullah Hussein Al-Ahmar, a Yemeni politician and businessman, has said he will challenge US sanctions against him for supporting Hamas, saying that his actions were “compatible” with Yemeni laws and international charters that supported the Palestinian people.
Al-Ahmar said: “This unjustified decision is yet another example of America’s blatant bias toward injustice and occupation, as well as an illegitimate attempt to criminalize my modest legal and humanitarian efforts in support of the Palestinian people’s just cause.”
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Monday imposed sanctions on Al-Ahmar — who has been in exile since the Houthis seized power in Yemen a decade ago — as well as other individuals and businesses, accusing them of supporting Hamas.
Al-Ahmar is a Yemeni member of parliament who owns major media, banking, oil, and real estate companies in Yemen and elsewhere.
