2023-12-31 17:24:00
The American military Command in the Middle East indicated on Sunday December 31 that it had sunk three ships of the Houthi rebels of Yemen, after attacks in the Red Sea on a container ship of the Danish carrier Maersk, which suspended for 48 hours the transit of its ships in the area. Targeted by Houthi fire, American helicopters “retaliated in self-defense, sinking three of the four small ships, and killing the crews,” Centcom said in a statement, specifying that the fourth boat had “fled the area” .
Ten Houthi rebels were killed, according to two sources from the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port of Hodeida. “Ten Houthis were killed and two were injured during the US strike on Houthi boats trying to intercept a ship at sea off Hodeida,” said one of the two sources. The injured were rescued after the attack and taken to hospital and four other people survived, according to port sources who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
The US Navy, Centcom said, was responding to a request for assistance from Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged container ship from the Danish carrier Maersk, victim of the “23rd attempted attack by the Houthis against international ships since October 19”. According to Centcom, the boat had reported being hit by a missile. As two US ships responded to its request for assistance, it was again targeted by two ballistic missiles launched from Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory, which the US military had shot down. The ship was not damaged, according to Maersk.
Since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, after the bloody attack carried out on October 7 in Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement, the Houthis have increased attacks in the Red Sea against ships they consider “linked to Israel”, in solidarity with the Palestinian territory, bombed and besieged by Israel.
Maersk suspends transit for 48 hours
The attacks jeopardize a transit route that carries up to 12 percent of global trade, prompting the United States, Israel’s top ally, to establish a multinational naval force earlier this month to to protect ships in the Red Sea. Following the attack, the Danish maritime transport giant Maersk announced that it would suspend the transit of its fleet in the Red Sea for 48 hours. Its ships had just returned to the area, as had those of the French shipowner CMA-CGM, after the deployment of the multinational naval force.
Along with other companies, these shipping giants had previously suspended the passage of their ships through the area in mid-December. CMA-CGM, for its part, indicated to AFP that it was not considering temporarily avoiding the area again.
Series of US sanctions
In the latest incident in the area, the US Navy on Thursday shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthi rebels, a movement close to Iran and which controls a large part of Yemen.
The United States also announced on Thursday a series of sanctions targeting the Houthis’ financing circuits, targeting several people and entities in Yemen and Turkey that they consider involved in this financing. Washington accuses Tehran of helping Yemeni rebels carry out these attacks, but the Islamic Republic has always denied providing them with military equipment.
Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have left 21,822 dead, mostly women, children and adolescents, since the start of the war on October 7, according to the Hamas government, sparking anger in many Arab countries. and Muslims. They were launched in retaliation for an attack of unprecedented scale carried out by Hamas commandos which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, the majority civilians, according to the latest official Israeli data.
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