[ad_1] The US Navy has sunk three boats operated by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, leaving 10 dead or missing, after a container ship was attacked in th
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The US Navy has sunk three boats operated by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, leaving 10 dead or missing, after a container ship was attacked in the Red Sea.
Helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned and operated container ship, that had come under fire from four Houthi small boats on Sunday.
Houthi fired on the US helicopters before they “returned fire in self-defence”, sinking three of four small Houthi boats that had come within 20 metres of the ship and killing the crews, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.
“The fourth boat fled the area,” it added.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree confirmed in a statement on X that 10 members of the group’s naval forces were “killed or missing” in the US strike.
Saree said the Maersk was attacked as part of the rebels’ campaign to stop Israeli or Israel-bound vessels from transiting the Red Sea.
“Yemen’s naval forces once again remind all countries of our advice not to be drawn into American plans aimed at sparking a conflict in the Red Sea”, saying the Huthis are determined to confront “any aggression against our country and our people”.
The Maersk Hangzhou had earlier been targeted with two anti-ship ballistic missiles that the US military shot down.
One of the missiles, both launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen, hit the Maersk Hangzhou.
The Houthi have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling militant group Hamas.
The attacks are endangering a transit route that carries up to 12 per cent of global trade.
The clash marked a deadly escalation since the United States set up a multinational naval task force in early December to protect the vital shipping lane.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US was not looking for conflict with the rebel group following the attack.
“We don’t seek a conflict wider in the region and we’re not looking for a conflict with the Houthis,” he told ABC News.
“The best outcome here would be for the Houthis to stop these attacks, as we have made clear over and over again.”
CENTCOM said that assault was the 23rd illegal attack by the Houthi on international shipping since November 19.
The vessel appeared undamaged and “was able to continue its transit north”, Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, said in a statement.
“In light of the incident – and to allow time to investigate the details of the incident and assess the security situation further – it has been decided to delay all transits through the area for the next 48 hours,” it added.
Regional tensions have spiked since the outbreak of the Gaza war when the Hamas militant group launched an unprecedented attack on October 7, killing about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas from Gaza and launched a devastating offensive that has killed 21,672 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
US forces in Iraq and Syria have repeatedly come under fire from drone and rocket attacks that Washington says are being carried out by Iran-backed groups.
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