ABANDON SHIP!
Brit cargo evacs after Houthi strike
The crew of a British cargo vessel was forced to abandon ship as the boat threatened to sink Monday from a Houthi missile strike near the Red Sea — one of the most damaging attacks by the terrorists to date.
The Iran-backed Yemen rebel group claimed to also have taken out a US drone in the Yemeni seaside city of Hodeidah, but the reputed attack was not immediately confirmed.
The terror assaults occurred just days after President Biden admitted that recent retaliatory US airstrikes targeting the Houthi rebels have not been deterring them.
“Are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden said Thursday of the slew of American and allied strikes against the terrorists’ missiles and strongholds.
He then added defiantly, “Are they going to continue? Yes.”
Dangerous cargo
The targeted UK-registered vessel the Rubymar — which was sailing under the flag of Belize and reportedly carrying “very dangerous” fertilizer — was struck by two missiles in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, between 9:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. local time Sunday, reports said.
“We know she was taking in water,” the ship’s security company said, adding that the crew of 20 safely abandoned the badly damaged vessel after an explosion was reported onboard.
The crew disembarked from their listing ship — which has previously been used as a grain carrier for Ukraine — onto a merchant vessel in the area and were taken to a nearby port, The New York Times reported.
The vessel was carrying volatile fertilizer at the time that it was struck on Monday, according to the BBC.
The Houthis have been hammering maritime traffic in the region since the Palestinian terror group Hamas launched its Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, sparking the Gaza war, but have rarely caused such damage.
The Houthis, allies of Hamas, were quick to crow about their terror achievement Monday.
“The ship suffered catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt’’ and is “now at risk of potentially sinking,’’ terrorist Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a statement.
Battling back
The United States and its allies have been battling back against such terror strikes by taking out missiles and drones — including the first underwater unmanned enemy vessel over the weekend.
At least 30 Houthi targets were hit by US and UK forces across 10 different locations in Yemen in a single day earlier this month. The day before that, US forces took out 11 armed Houthi drones.
Other terrorist groups have joined the Houthis in targeting US forces and their allies over the West’s general support of Israel in the war.
Three US service members were killed and 34 others wounded by Iran-backed militants in a drone attack in Jordan last month, the first deaths of American troops by enemy fire in the Gaza war.
The Rubymar was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Bulgaria when it was struck.
UK officials quickly condemned the “reckless attack” on the ship and said allied forces were “already on the scene,” the BBC reported.