Missile attack causes fire aboard vessel off Yemen: UK maritime agency

A missile attack targeted a vessel transiting the Gulf of Aden, causing a fire on board, a British maritime security agency said Thursday.

“A vessel was attacked by two missiles, resulting in a fire onboard,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, adding that “coalition forces are responding.”

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia said on Tuesday they targeted an Israeli cargo ship, the “MSC Silver”, in the Gulf of Aden adjacent to the Red Sea with a number of missiles.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea did not elaborate, but in a statement said the group had also used drones to target a number of US warships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea as well as sites in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat.

The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, have attacked vessels with commercial ties to the United

States, Britain and Israel, shipping and insurance sources say.

Despite retaliatory Western strikes on Houthi military sites in Yemen, the Iranaligned Houthis have vowed to continue targeting ships linked to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians until Israeli forces stop their war in Gaza.

“There is no danger to international or European navigation so long as there are no aggressive operations, and thus, there is no need to militarize the Red Sea,” Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said in a post on X on Tuesday.

“What the world is impatiently waiting for is not the militarization of the Red Sea, but rather an urgent and comprehensive declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza, for humanitarian reasons that are clear to anyone.”

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia on Monday said they targeted two American ships in the Gulf of Aden, after maritime agencies reported a US-owned vessel was attacked twice in those waters.