Illustrative image.
The Iran-backed Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Yemen attacked an oil tanker with links to Israel in the Red Sea late on August 31.
In a statement released early the next day, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said that the tanker, identified as the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, was targeted with a ballistic missile, claiming that the vessel received a “direct hit.”
“The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm their continued support for the Palestinian people by preventing Israeli navigation or shipping to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Red and Arabian Seas, as well as by carrying out more military operations against Israeli enemy targets in occupied Palestine,” the spokesman added, noting that “these operations will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
The tanker is owned by the Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping. The company is ultimately controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which monitors shipping in the Middle East, earlier reported a ship heard a splash and a bang off its side near Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
Later, Eastern Pacific issued a statement assuring that the tanker was undamaged and was still under the command of its captain.
“We are aware of security reports alleging that our managed vessel Scarlet Ray was the target of a suspected Houthi attack,” the company said.
“We confirm that the vessel has not sustained any damage and continues to operate under the command of its master,” adding that all crew members were safe and accounted for.
The attack just three days after Israeli strikes on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa, killed the Prime Minister of the group’s government, Ahmed al-Rahawi, along with eight of the ministers. Reports suggest that the group’s chief of staff and defense minister have survived the attack.
Since March 18, when Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza, the Houthis have launched close to 70 ballistic missiles and more than 20 suicide drones at targets in Israel. The group also sank two ships directly linked to Israel in the Red Sea during the same period.
The Hotuhi attack on Scarlet Ray shows that the group was not deterred by the recent wave of Israeli strikes, which was the sixteenth to target Yemen. Furthermore, the attack was likely just an initial response to the assassination of al-Rahawi and his colleagues.
In a speech on August 31, the leader of the Houthis, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, said that the group would keep launching attacks against Israel, vowing to continue “targeting Israel with missiles and drones” and to escalate these attacks. He stressed that Israeli strikes on Yemen would not weaken the group or discourage its fighters.
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there were demonstrations in support of gaza in the city of passau and in damascus. more protesters gathered in passau than in damascus. therefore, i ask the houthis to blow up the tanker off the coast of traitorous syria.
you sound like a leftist communist nazi.
go to gayza and fight
and eat arab dyck with the taste of goat butt.
lol
fuck israel ! may they never live in peace so long as palestinians are denied dignity and statehood
are you asking israel to fukk you?
thats a strech dude.
anything wrong with your goat?
lol
that ofer had an offer he couldn’t ignore 765 kg of c-4 to the front door and hull of his multimillion dollars worth wreckage.