Greek ship hit by Houthi rocket as US seizes Iranian missiles headed for Yemen
US forces launched fresh airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen on Tuesday, as the rebel group defied coalition warnings to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea.
The US strikes targeted four anti-ship ballistic missiles in an undisclosed Houthi-controlled area of Yemen, US officials said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Houthis struck a Greek-owned ship with a missile attack, while the United States announced it had seized a shipment of Iranian missiles headed for Yemen.
It was reportedly the third incident involving the Malta-flagged ship, reportedly a bulk vessel called the Zografia, in the past 24 hours, as the Houthis continued to launch attacks in defiance of last week’s US-UK airstrikes on the militia group.
It came as the US military announced that the Navy Seals had seized Iranian-supplied weapons which were being delivered to the Houthis during an operation last week.
US forces also launched additional airstrikes on Houthi positions on Monday night, though it was unclear what was targeted.
The Houthis say they are targeting ships passing through the Red Sea with any links to Israel in an attempt to stop Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships that came under attack in recent weeks have no links to the country.
Iran-supplied weapons seized
Since last week’s US-UK airstrikes, the Houthis have also announced they will begin targeting vessels with links to those countries in a move that risks even stronger Western military action.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the Middle East, announced on Tuesday, that it had seized a dhow, a traditional sailing vessel, carrying “advanced lethal aid” from Iran to Yemen.
“This is the first seizure of lethal, Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons to the Houthis since the beginning of Houthi attacks against merchant ships in November 2023,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
During that operation, US Navy Seals with support from helicopters and drones boarded the dhow near the coast of Somalia, seizing Iranian-made ballistic missiles and cruise missile components.
The dhow was then sunk as it was deemed “unsafe” by US forces. Two US Navy Seals were lost overboard and a search for them was ongoing as of Tuesday evening.
Both Navy Seals reportedly went overboard by accident, with the first knocked off the vessels by high waves, leading to the second jumping in to retrieve him.
On Tuesday, Qatar condemned the Western strikes on Yemen, warning that they would not deter the Houthis and were part of a “recipe for escalation everywhere”.
‘Western strikes could make situation worse’
The Houthi movement, an Iranian proxy group, has for the past decade been locked in a brutal civil war with Yemen’s internationally backed government and a Saudi-led coalition.
The militia group started attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, attempting to deter Israel from its ongoing war with Hamas, which so far has killed at least 24,000 Palestinians.
The war erupted after the Oct 7 massacre in which Hamas, another group backed by Iran, smashed through the Gaza fence and killed more than a thousand Israelis.
Elisabeth Kendall, a leading UK expert on the Houthis and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, has warned that Western strikes on the Houthis are unlikely to deter them from renewed attacks on commercial shipping.
“The problem now is that the actual effect it may have on the region is to make things even worse, and the reason I say that is the Houthis are no strangers to airstrikes – they have been in a civil war now for nine years, they’ve suffered more than 25,000 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition and it didn’t deter them,” she told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
“So, I think looking ahead we might stand to see even more conflict start to erupt in this Red Sea region.”
A group of 26 aid groups operating in Yemen, including Islamic Relief and Save The Children, have urgently called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in a joint statement.
“We urge all actors to prioritise diplomatic channels over military options to de-escalate the crisis and safeguard the progress of peace efforts in Yemen,” the statement said.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Yemen’s Houthi movement said it targeted the Zografia ship that was heading to Israel with naval missiles which resulted in a “direct hit”.
Source » telegraph.co.uk
