Houthi Missiles Cripple Another Cargo Ship As Red Sea Attacks Continue

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:28 pm

The Houthi rebels in Yemen crippled and may have sunk another merchant ship with multiple missile strikes in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, June 13.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sare’e announced the Houthis had struck the bulk cargo carrier M/V Verbena with several missiles.

The Houthis are a primarily Shia Muslim faction and have fought with Yemen’s predominantly Sunni Muslim government for years. A U.S.-backed Saudi Arabian-led coalition of Arab states intervened against the Houthis, but this Yemeni civil war has largely died down in recent months with efforts to establish and maintain a lasting ceasefire in the country. While the interfactional fighting within Yemen has waned, the Houthis have focused much of their attention on the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, and have attacked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden they believe to be connected to Israel.

Sare’e said the Houthis targeted the Verbena because it violated the Yemeni faction’s ban on ships sailing for Israel.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed, in a Friday, June 14 statement, that the Verbena caught fire after being struck by two separate missiles. CENTCOM initially reported one member of the ship’s crew was medically evacuated, but that the rest of the ship’s crew battled the fire and was able to resume their transit of the Gulf of Aden.

CENTCOM said in a June 15 follow-up statement that the Verbena’s crew had to issue a distress call and abandon their ship after all “due to continued fires and an inability to control them.” CENTCOM reported another merchant ship, M/V Anna Meta answered the distress call from the Verbena’s crew and transported them away to safety.

The Houthi military’s website shared footage on Sunday, June 16, purporting to show the Verbena sinking.

این کشتی Verbena است که دیروز غرق شد.
مردم یمن به انتقام گیری از صهیونیست ها ادامه می دهند pic.twitter.com/N3cldb4QJI

— علي الـعـجـري – 𝗔𝗟𝗜 𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗝𝗥𝗬 (@a_alajry) June 16, 2024

The U.S. government has, for years, concluded the Houthis are aligned with the government of Iran. CENTCOM said the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN) frigate Jamaran was sailing within eight nautical miles of the Verbena when its distress call went out, but said the Iranian warship did not respond to the call.

The alleged sinking of the Verbena came on the same week the Houthis crippled another bulk cargo ship, M/V Tutor, with an explosive-laden unmanned surface vessel (USV).

The Yemeni rebel faction has claimed to have damaged more than a dozen ships since they began their pattern of drone and missile attacks in October. The Houthis hijacked one commercial vessel, the M/V Galaxy Leader, in November, seizing a ship in a helicopter-borne assault and taking its crew of 25 captive.

The Houthis severely damaged the Belize-flagged bulk carrier M/V Rubymar on Feb. 18, leading the crew to abandon their vessel before it sank around two weeks later on March 2.

The Houthis struck another ship, the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier M/V True Confidence, on March 6, killing three members of the ship’s crew and injuring four others.

The U.S. Navy and allies and partners from around the world have made efforts to shoot down the Houthi drone and missile attacks, and to strike suspected launch sites within Yemen. The Houthis have acknowledged dozens of casualties resulting from the U.S. and allied strikes.

Four armed Houthi attack boats reportedly attempted to hijack a commercial ship in December, but a U.S. military helicopter responded to the merchant ship’s distress call. Houthis on board the attack boats reportedly fired on the U.S. military helicopter, which returned fire, sinking three of the attack boats and killing their crews.

The U.S. military has lost several of their attack drones over Yemen since October. The Houthis have claimed to down six U.S. MQ-9 Reapers drones, though the U.S. side has not confirmed all of the reported losses.