Aug. 4 () –
The British Navy said Saturday that a merchant ship was hit by a missile in the Gulf of Aden hours after reporting a small explosion attributed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels near the same vessel.
The company’s security officer reported that the ship had been hit by a missile, but that “no fires, water ingress or oil leaks had been observed,” the British Navy’s commercial operations section (UKMTO) said in a statement.
The statement said the attacked merchant ship was heading to its next port of call at the time of the attack, which occurred at 17:57 local time, some 125 nautical miles (231 kilometers) east of the Yemeni port city of Aden.
Just over four hours earlier, the UKMTO added, “the armed security team on the same vessel observed a small explosion in close proximity to the vessel,” which was then located about 170 nautical miles east of Aden.
The incident, which took place at around 1.30pm, was the “first attempted attack by the Houthis since the Israeli air force bombed the port of Al Hudaydah on 20 July”, according to the UKMTO.
The Houthis, who control the most populated areas of Yemen, have launched attacks against Israeli territory and against ships that they accuse of having some kind of connection with the country following the offensive unleashed against Gaza after the attacks carried out on October 7 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
They have also attacked US and British ships and other strategic assets in response to the bombings of Yemen by these countries, an intervention that Washington and London have based on their desire to guarantee the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
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