Sanaa, Yemen – Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed another attack on a US ship early Friday, after the United States launched fresh strikes on rebel targets over their aggression towards vessels in and around the Red Sea.
While the Iran-backed rebels maintained they had struck the commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden, the US military later said the group’s missiles had missed their mark.
In a statement posted to social media, the Houthis said their “naval forces… carried out a targeting operation against an American ship” — identified as the Chem Ranger — “with several appropriate naval missiles, resulting in direct hits”.
It did not give a time or other details for the latest attack in international shipping lanes.
In its own statement, the US military’s Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, said the Houthis on Thursday night “launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at M/V Chem Ranger, a Marshall Island-flagged, US-Owned, Greek-operated tanker”.
“The crew observed the missiles impact the water near the ship. There were no reported injuries or damage to the ship,” the command said on social media platform X.
Continued Houthi aggression against vessels in and around the Red Sea has led to strikes in Yemen by US and British forces, with the United States reporting its latest attack on Houthi targets on Thursday.
The specialist website Marine Traffic said the Chem Ranger was a chemical tanker sailing from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.
British maritime risk management company Ambrey said a Marshallese chemical tanker sailing the same route had reported an incident southeast of the Yemeni port of Aden.
“An Indian warship responded to the event,” it added.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO, without naming the vessel, also reported an incident in the same area, adding in a bulletin that the “vessel and crew are safe, vessel proceeding to next port”.
Continued strikes
The Houthis have launched numerous attacks on shipping in the waters around Yemen since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7.
The Houthi statement said the rebels were acting against “the oppression of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and within the response to the American-British aggression against our country”.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday conceded the US counterstrikes had yet to deter the Houthi attacks, but added: “Are they going to continue? Yes.”
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that US forces on Thursday had hit “a couple of anti-ship missiles that we had reason to believe were being prepared for imminent fire into the southern Red Sea”.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said US Navy warplanes carried out the strikes, and that the air raids that began against the Houthis last week had been able to “degrade and severely disrupt and destroy a significant number of their capabilities”.
Several major shipping firms have halted their traffic through the area because of the attacks.
Russia on Thursday said the United States should halt its strikes against the Houthis to aid a diplomatic resolution to the attacks on merchant vessels.
“The most important thing now is to stop the aggression against Yemen, because the more the Americans and the British bomb, the less willing the Houthis are to talk,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
Denmark, meanwhile, said Thursday it would join the coalition behind the air strikes against the Houthis.
The Scandinavian country, which has previously said it would send a frigate to the region, is home to shipping giant Maersk, which is among the firms to have rerouted ships away from the Red Sea.
Safe passage for Russian, Chinese ships
A senior Houthi official has promised safe passage for Russian and Chinese vessels through the Red Sea, where the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group has been carrying out attacks on commercial ships in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
In an interview published by Russian outlet Izvestia on Friday, senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti insisted the waters around Yemen, which some shipping firms are avoiding due to the ongoing aggression, were safe so long as vessels were not linked to certain countries, particularly Israel.
“As for all other countries, including Russia and China, their shipping in the region is not threatened,” he said.
“Moreover, we are ready to ensure the safe passage of their ships in the Red Sea, because free navigation plays a significant role for our country.”
Attacks on vessels “in any way connected with Israel” would continue, he added.
The Iran-backed rebels have recently said US- and British-linked ships were also fair game after the two countries launched air strikes in Yemen in response to the repeated attacks.
The Houthis claimed early on Friday another attack on a US ship after the United States launched fresh strikes on rebel targets the day before.
In Friday’s interview, Bukhaiti said the blame for the shipping attacks rested with the vessels that ignored Houthi orders to change course.
“Ansar Allah does not pursue the goal of capturing or sinking this or that sea vessel,” he said, using the group’s official name.
“Our goal is to raise the economic costs for the Jewish state in order to stop the carnage in Gaza.”
Bukhaiti defended his group’s capture in November of the Galaxy Leader — a merchant vessel linked to an Israeli businessman — as “a precautionary step for everyone else to follow our requirements”.
The ship’s crew, who are still being held, “are fine, and we are giving them a warm welcome”, he added.
While the Houthis insist their attacks only target vessels of certain nationalities, a US Navy commander has said the ships involved actually have ties to dozens of countries.