(Sanaa) Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed responsibility early Friday for strikes against an American merchant ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden, a new attack by this pro-Iran group which, however, did not cause any damage according to Washington.
“The naval forces of the Yemeni armed forces (the name given to the armed wing of the Houthis, Editor’s note) carried out a targeted operation against an American ship, the Chem Ranger, in the Gulf of Aden with several anti-ship missiles, some of which hit their target,” they said in a statement.
The American military command in the Middle East (Centcom) confirmed that the Houthis had indeed aimed, but with “two missiles”, the merchant ship Chem Ranger without however reaching it as the rebels claim.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE VESSEL FINDER SITE
THE Chem Ranger
The crew “saw the missiles hit the water near the ship” and “there were no reports of injuries or damage,” Centcom added.
According to the specialist site Marine Traffic, the Chem Ranger is an American tanker flying the flag of the Marshall Islands which has been off the coast of Yemen in recent days.
For its part, the British Maritime Safety Agency (UKMTO) reported an incident 115 nautical miles southeast of the city of Aden with an explosion 30 meters from the ship and specified that a drone had stolen nearby.
“A response to American and British attacks is inevitable, any further aggression will be punished,” argued the Houthis, saying they only target ships going to Israel “as long as there is no ceasefire and that the siege will not be lifted on Gaza.”
American strikes
The United States struck Houthi sites in Yemen for the fifth time on Thursday, in response to attacks by the Iran-backed group on merchant ships in the Red Sea, a crucial area for international trade.
More specifically, Washington said it struck Houthi missiles. “We believe they were ready for imminent launch into the Red Sea,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
The deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, Sabrina Singh, said that these bombings, which began at the end of last week and sometimes carried out with the United Kingdom, could have “destroyed a significant part of the capabilities” of the Houthis.
PHOTO MAXIM SHEMETOV, REUTERS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
In Moscow, however, the Russian Foreign Minister called on the United States to stop its “aggression” against Yemen. “The more the Americans and the British bomb, the less the Houthis will want to talk,” Sergei Lavrov said.
Thursday’s American bombings were the second in less than 24 hours on missiles from the Houthis, a group placed on Wednesday by Washington on one of its lists of “terrorist organizations”.
US President Joe Biden declared this week that these strikes would continue as long as the Houthis disrupt international maritime trade off the coast of Yemen.
Denmark enters the scene
This Iranian-backed group has attacked dozens of merchant ships it considers “linked to Israel” in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
These attacks, which they say they are carrying out in “solidarity” with the population of this Palestinian territory under the control of their Hamas allies and ravaged by war, have forced many shipowners to suspend the passage of their fleets through the Red Sea for the reroute around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, increasing the time and cost of shipping.
Faced with these attacks, the United States set up a coalition to patrol off the coast of Yemen and protect maritime traffic.
Not all the countries in this coalition are participating in the strikes, but Denmark, cradle of the No. 2 in global shipping Maersk, announced Thursday that it would join. France has decided not to participate “to avoid any escalation” in the region, according to its president Emmanuel Macron.
Yemeni official calls for ground operations
PHOTO FABRICE COFFRINI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Vice President of the Presidential Council, Aidarous al-Zoubaïdi
The deputy head of the Presidential Council in Yemeni Yemen, for his part, called on Thursday for international assistance to carry out ground operations against the Houthi rebels, in support of the airstrikes carried out against them by the United States.
The Yemeni government lost control of vast territories including the capital Sanaa to the rebels from 2014 and has received support since 2015 from a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to fight the insurgents.
But for Aidarous al-Zoubaïdi, vice-president of the Presidential Council, the operations of this coalition, which also carries out airstrikes, were “insufficient” to defeat the Houthis.
The ground forces, which “belong to the legitimate government” of Yemen, must “be helped,” he told AFP at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, arguing that “(air) strikes without operations terrestrial are useless.
In a written response to a question, Zoubaïdi stressed the need for foreign military aid that focuses on intelligence sharing, training and equipping government forces.
“Such an approach would allow local forces (…) to join the efforts of the West who are carrying out airstrikes” against the Houthis, he added.
“This is a discussion we want to have with the United States and the United Kingdom” which has participated in strikes against Yemeni rebels, he said.
The Presidential Council was set up in 2022 after Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a refugee in Saudi Arabia, handed over full powers to this body, based in Aden, the large city in the South.
Ahmed al-Saleh, the special adviser to the presidential council, also said that the airstrikes “were not decisive in the battle against the Houthis.”
He stressed the importance of the United States “supporting the legitimate Yemeni government and its ground forces and ensuring full coordination” in the fight against the rebels.
The Houthis and the Yemeni government committed at the end of December to respecting a new ceasefire and accepted the opening of a peace process to end the conflict.
France Media Agency
reference: www.lapresse.ca