Yemen's Houthis say they will target US ships

 The Yemeni Houthi movement will expand its targets to include US ships, an official from the Iran-allied group said on Monday.

"The ship doesn't necessarily have to be heading to Israel for us to target it; it is enough for it to be American," Nasruldeen Amer, a spokesperson for the Houthis, told Al Jazeera.

"The United States is on the verge of losing its maritime security."

Amer also said British and American ships had become "legitimate targets" due to the strikes launched by the two countries on Yemen last week.

Attacks on ships since October by the Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, have hit commerce and alarmed major powers in a regional escalation of Israel's more than three-month war with Hamas militants in Gaza.

In the latest apparent attack, a missile struck a US-owned cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, a British security agency and maritime risk company said, a day after Houthi rebels fired a cruise missile at an American destroyer.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations security agency, run by Britain's Royal Navy, reported a "vessel hit from above by a missile" in the Gulf of Aden. It did not provide further details.

According to Ambrey, a British maritime risk company, a fire broke out on board the Marshall Islands-flagged, US-owned bulk carrier, but it remains seaworthy and there were no injuries.

United States Central Command identified the ship as the MV Gibraltar Eagle.

The incident will further heighten shipping and security fears for the volatile region where the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have for weeks fired drones and missiles towards vessels they deem Israeli-linked in the adjacent Red Sea.

United States and United Kingdom forces responded on Friday with strikes against scores of rebel targets in Yemen, which the Houthis said would not deter them.

Three missiles were launched by the Houthis, Ambrey said, with two of them not reaching the sea.

Ambrey "assessed the attack to have targeted US interests in response to US military strikes on Houthi military positions in Yemen", the report said, adding that the vessel was "assessed to not be Israel-affiliated".

"The impact reportedly caused a fire in a hold. The bulker reportedly remained seaworthy, and no injuries were reported," it said.

The ship was transiting the International Recommended Transit Corridor, a passage of the Gulf of Aden that is patrolled for pirates, when it was struck, Ambrey added.

There was no immediate statement from the rebels, but Houthi military and a Yemeni government source told AFP that the insurgents fired three missiles today.

The US military said yesterday its forces shot down a cruise missile fired at an American destroyer warship from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen.

It appeared to be the first such attack on an American destroyer.

The Houthis say their attacks on Red Sea shipping are in solidarity with Gaza, where Iran-backed Hamas militants have been at war with Israel for more than three months.

Around 12% of global trade normally passes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea entrance between southwest Yemen and Djibouti, but the rebel attacks have affected trade flows.

Washington last month announced a maritime security initiative, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to protect maritime traffic in the area. But the Houthis have kept up attacks despite several warnings.

On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time), an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea. The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah by… pic.twitter.com/jftZHQhA2e

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 15, 2024

Meanwhile, at least six more oil tankers were steering clear of the southern Red Sea, as disruptions on the vital route for energy shipping increase in the wake of US-led strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Following the strikes, the US-led Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) based in Bahrain warned all ships to avoid the Babal-Mandab Strait at the south end of the Red Sea for several days, according to tanker body INTERTANKO.

Prior to the US and British strikes it had been mostly container ships which were avoiding the Red Sea, with oil tanker traffic largely unchanged in December.

But since the CMF's warning, a growing number of oil tankers are avoiding the region, increasing the potential for disruptions to east-west oil supply via the Suez Canal.

The news agency Reuters counted a six tankers to have altered their course since the strikes, making a total of at least 15 vessels to do so since the start of the strikes last week, ship tracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed.

The tankers Torm Innovation, Proteus Harvonne, and Alfios I appeared to have turned away from the Suez Canal in favour of the longer route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope for voyages to Europe and the US.

The Pacific Julia and STI Topaz are also heading straight for the Cape route.

The Octa Lune performed a U-turn in the northern part of the Red Sea on 12 January and has returned to the Mediterranean with a Taiwan-bound cargo of naphtha.

Tankers tracked by Reuters on Friday that had diverted or paused have either taken the longer Cape route or paused in the Gulf of Aden or northern Red Sea.

Taking the longer route around the Cape can add up to three weeks' sailing time.

The list of diversions could grow as shipowners exercise policies of navigating away from the Red Sea.

Tanker owners including Torm, Hafnia and Stena Bulk said they would avoid Bab al-Mandab from Friday, while Euronav reaffirmed its temporary suspension of transits through the Red Sea.

https://www.rte.ie/news/middle-east/2024/0115/1426636-yemen-shipping/