Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday launched their biggest attack yet on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, officials said, with the barrage of drones and missiles being shot down by U.S. and U.K. warships.
The Iran-backed militia’s barrage included 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and an anti-ship ballistic missile, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. Authorities said the projectiles were aimed “towards international shipping lanes where dozens of merchant vessels were transiting.”
All of the missiles and drones in the “complex attack” were shot down by fighter jets from the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and four other ships, the statement read. “This is the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov. 19,” it added. “There were no injuries or damage reported.”
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Grant Shapps, the U.K. defense minister, said in a post on X that Britain’s warship HMS Diamond and the U.S. vessels had “repelled the largest attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea to date.”
Houthi rebels have been targeting ships in vital sea lines linking the Suez Canal with the Indian Ocean in response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Although the group claims its actions are in support of Palestinians in the enclave, its targets in the Red Sea have increasingly had little or no link to Israel, according to the Associated Press.
Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a televised statement after the latest attack that the barrage “targeted an American ship that was providing support to the Zionist entity,” though he did not elaborate. He also said the attempted strike was an “initial response” to the U.S. killing 10 rebel fighters by sinking Houthi vessels last week.
As yet, the Biden administration has resisted carrying out strikes on Houthi bases inside Yemen.
But the attack Tuesday comes a week after the U.S. and a group of its allies issued a joint statement giving the group an ultimatum over the ongoing attacks. “The Houthis will bear the responsibility for the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, or the free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the statement read in part.
On Tuesday, before the attack, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke in Israel about wanting to avoid creating a wider regional conflict, while reaffirming that the U.S. is prepared to act if necessary. “We’re determined, again, that we not see escalation, that we don’t have the conflict spread, and we’ve made that very clear,” Blinken said. “But, of course, if our personnel, if our forces are threatened or attacked, we’ll take appropriate steps. We’ll respond.”
