Houthi rebels launch missile attack on yet another U.S.-owned commercial ship, Pentagon says

For the third time this week, Yemen-based Houthi rebels Thursday launched missiles at a U.S.-owned service provider vessel, the Pentagon stated, the newest in a slew of such assaults from the Iranian-backed militant group on industrial vessels in and across the Crimson Sea.

At about 9 p.m. native time Thursday, Houthi rebels launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles on the M/V Chem Ranger, a U.S.-owned ship that flies below a Marshal Islands flag, in accordance with U.S. Central Command.

Each missiles landed within the water close to the ship, CENTCOM stated, and there have been no studies of accidents or injury to the Chem Ranger.

CENTCOM didn’t affirm precisely the place the ship was when the assault occurred.

Because the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing a minimum of 1,200 individuals and sparking the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, Houthi rebels, who management massive swaths of Yemen, have launched dozens of drone and missile assaults on service provider ships within the Crimson Sea and the Gulf of Aden in what they’ve stated is an effort to help Palestinians.

After U.S. officers, together with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, warned for weeks that there could be unspecified “penalties” for the Houthis, the U.S. on Jan. 12, launched the primary of what could be a number of rounds of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Regardless of these missile strikes, the Houthis have vowed to proceed their Crimson Sea assault.

On Monday, the Houthis fired a missile on the M/V Gibraltar Eagle within the southern Crimson Sea, CENTCOM reported. There have been no accidents or vital injury, however the missile did trigger an inconsequential fireplace within the ship’s maintain.

And on Wednesday evening, a Houthi-fired drone struck the M/V Genco Picardy within the Gulf of Aden, inflicting some injury however no accidents, CENTCOM stated.

Each the Gibraltar Eagle and the Genco Picardy are U.S.-owned and sail below Marshal Islands flags.

President Biden indicated to reporters Thursday that the strikes in opposition to the Houthis would proceed.

“If you say ‘working,’ are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Mr. Biden stated. “Are they going to proceed? Sure.”  

On Wednesday, the State Division introduced it was reclassifying the Houthis as a “specifically designated international terrorist group.” That transfer reversed a part of an earlier determination by the State Division in February 2021 that had eliminated that designation.

The White Home has repeatedly accused Iran of being concerned within the Houthis’ Crimson Sea assaults, allegations Tehran has denied.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon on Tuesday stated that, over the weekend, it seized a boatload of “superior typical weapons” despatched from Iran to the Houthis.

— Olivia Gazis, Eleanor Watson and Tucker Reals contributed to this report.