Houthis claim US ship hit in Gulf of Aden attack

Yemeni’s Houthi rebels claim they carried out a missile attack on a US ship in the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis said in a statement posted early January 19 on their social media that their “naval” forces had attacked the Chem Ranger “with several appropriate naval missiles, resulting in direct hits”, The Times of Israel reports.

It did not give a time or other details for the latest attack in international shipping lanes.

Houthi aggression against vessels in the Red Sea has led to strikes in Yemen by US and British forces, with the United States reporting its latest attack on Houthi targets on Thursday.

The specialist website Marine Traffic identified the Chem Ranger as a Marshall Islands-flagged chemical tanker sailing from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.

British maritime risk management company Ambrey said a Marshallese chemical tanker sailing along the same route had reported a “suspicious” approach by drones.

One fell in the sea approximately 30 meters from the tanker, it added. “An Indian warship responded to the event.”

“There were no crew casualties or damage reported,” the monitor said.

The British maritime security agency UKMTO, without naming the vessel, also reported an incident in the same area in which a drone approached a merchant ship, with an explosion reported in the water about 30 metres away.

“Coalition forces are responding, vessel and crew are safe, vessel proceeding to next port,” it said in a bulletin.