Houthi Red Sea attacks: Group says it struck US container ship

The Houthi group in Yemen claims they have hit a US merchant ship called KOI in the Red Sea in a new attack on commercial ships.

But two sources who work at sea told the media to Verify that the Houthi claim was not true. US and UK authorities have not said if an attack happened.

Security company Ambrey said a ship near Yemen’s southern coast had an explosion on its right side, but they did not say which ship it was.

At the same time, the US started more air attacks in Yemen.

Ten flying machines called drones were going to be sent into the air, but somebody tried to attack them before they could take off.

Reuters news agency says that the KOI is a container ship from Liberia. It is operated by a company in the UK called Oceonix Services. The company owns a ship called Marlin Luanda, which was hit by a missile and got damaged on Saturday.

The Houthis think it’s okay to attack Israeli, US and British ships because of things these countries have done in the past. The US and Britain say they are attacking Houthi missile positions to protect their trade.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Wednesday that their armed forces attacked an American ship named KOI with some naval missiles.

He said the ship was going to the ports of a place called “occupied Palestine”, which is another name for Israel.

The industry publication Trade Winds said that the claim was not true. Instead, a crew member who was sick was taken off the ship for medical help.

Two people who work in maritime security agreed with this opinion. UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has not sent any alerts about the attacks.

But Mr Sarea said again that the Houthis would not hesitate to fight back against any increased actions from Britain and America.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces consider all American and British ships in the Red and Arabian Seas as targets as long as the American-British aggression against our country continues,” said the Houthi spokesman.

The US Central Command said that 10 drones in Yemen were getting ready to be launched and they were a danger to ships and US warships in that area.

It said that all 10 were destroyed, including a Houthi drone control station on the ground.

The US said one of its boats destroyed three Iranian drones and a missile from the Houthi group in the Gulf of Aden.

Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea are making it harder to trade internationally. People are worried this will cause problems with getting supplies where they need to go.

On 7 October, many gunmen from Gaza went into southern Israel and killed about 1,300 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others as hostages.

Israel started a war in Gaza and more than 26,900 people, mostly women and children, have died. This information comes from the health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by the Hamas group.