Houthis warn German ships over Red Sea as vessel reports nearby missile strike

A drone is displayed in an exhibition held by the Houthis to mark the 'Martyrs Week' in Sanaa, Yemen, on Nove. 17, 2024. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 18 November 2024
Follow

Houthis warn German ships over Red Sea as vessel reports nearby missile strike

  • A ship’s captain saw that “a missile splashed in close proximity to the vessel” as it traveled near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, UKMTO reports
  • The Houthis theartened to hit vessels of German shipping firms passing near the Red Sea or using Israeli ports

DUBAI: A vessel 60 nautical miles southeast of Yemen's Aden reported on Monday a missile splashing into the sea in its close proximity, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.
UKMTO added that the vessel and its crew were safe.
The same vessel was passing through the Red Sea 25 nautical miles west of Yemen's Mokha on Sunday when it reported a missile splashing into the sea nearby, UKMTO said.
The attack comes as the Houthis continue their monthslong assault targeting shipping through a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it a year over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Houthis theartened to hit vessels of German shipping firms passing near the Red Sea or using Israeli ports, the German shipowners’ association VDR said Monday.
The emailed warnings sent to the German industry body and cargo carriers in recent months were “attempts at intimidation,” VDR executive Irina Haesler said.
The threats were “directed against ships that call at Israeli ports, as well as against those that pass through the Red Sea, the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean,” the association said.
“Regardless of their location, ships with supposed links to Israel are considered potential targets,” it said.
One such email from the Houthis, seen by AFP, warned German shipowners of “a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy.”
It said “all vessels belonging to it, associated with it or bound for it” would be “subject to punishment and ... prohibited from crossing the area of operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces.”
A VDR spokeswoman told AFP the authenticity of the emails had been confirmed by the German navy and International Chamber of Shipping.
The Houthis have targeted more than 90 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign, which also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The militia maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
The Houthis have shot down multiple American MQ-9 Reaper drones as well.
In the Houthi's last attack on Nov. 11, two US Navy warships targeted with multiple drones and missiles as they were traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but the attacks were not successful.


Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah says commander killed in strike

Updated 2 sec ago
Follow

Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah says commander killed in strike

BAGHDAD: The Tehran-backed Iraqi group Kataeb Hezbollah said on Thursday that one of its commanders was killed in a strike in southern Iraq the previous day.
Ahmad Al-Hamidawi, the secretary-general of the armed faction, mourned in a statement the loss of a “great commander,” Ali Hussein Al-Freiji, who had joined the group more than two decades ago.
Two sources from the faction told AFP on Wednesday that a strike hit a vehicle near the group’s main base in southern Iraq, killing two fighters.
The toll then rose to three, including the commander.
One source described the attack as a “Zionist-US strike.”
The group’s Jurf Al-Nasr base was the first Iraqi target of strikes blamed on Israel and the US, which later expanded to other areas.
Since the start of the war, the strikes have killed 15 fighters, mostly from Kataeb Hezbollah.
Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, had said it did not want to be dragged into the war. But it has not been spared.
Several Iran-backed armed groups — known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, to which Kataeb Hezbollah also belongs — claim daily drone attacks on US bases.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Thursday warned European countries not to join the war, threatening their “forces and bases in Iraq and the region.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported that security forces seized two rockets and a launchpad in the southern Basra province, that were set up to target a neighboring country.