Two ships sailing close to the Gulf of Aden were forced to seek the support of the US navy after explosions were heard nearby, as the Houthi group kept up their assault on commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen.
The Houthis have said their attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians as Israel bombards Gaza. The ships belonging to the US subsidiary of Danish shipping company Maersk were carrying US military supplies when they came under attack from three anti-ship missiles near the Bab el-Mandeb strait. The US central command (Centcom) said two missiles were shot down, and a third landed in the sea. No damage was caused either to the Maersk Detroit or the Maersk Chesapeake and no injuries were reported, Centcom said.
Maersk said in a statement: “En route, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the US navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles. The crew, ship and cargo are safe and unharmed. The US navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden.”
Maersk said its US subsidiary was now suspending Red Sea transits. “The safety of our crews is of utmost importance. Following the escalation of risk, MLL [Maersk Line Limited] is suspending transits in the region until further notice” the spokesperson said.
Both commercial vessels carry cargo for the US government and are enrolled in programs run by the defence department to transport forces, supplies and equipment during times of war or national emergency, which is why they were escorted through the strait.
Centcom also reported that on Tuesday night it had launched two pre-emptive strikes designed to stop imminent Houthi attacks. Previous attacks last Friday underlined the current inability of the US and UK to neutralise the Houthis despite multiple attacks on their missile sites.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, told MPs that risks to global navigation continued, with shipping costs rising by as much as 300%. He challenged what he described as absurd Houthi claims to be the Robin Hood of Yemen, saying their history proved the opposite. He said the attacks in which the UK participated alongside the US destroyed Houthi surface-to-air missiles and the Houthis’ ability to hold the seas to ransom.
“Our military strikes did not cause any civilian casualties,” Shapps said.
The attacks on the Houthis were backed by the influential chair of the UK’s foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, who said it was ahistorical to regard the Houthis as anti-colonial freedom fighters.
Houthi forces in Yemen have written to the UN demanding that all UK and US staff leave the country within a month on the basis that their governments are mounting assaults on Yemen. The warning also appeared to apply to NGOs working in the capital, Sana’a. In addition, it was reported that the Houthis had prevented a UN plane from landing in the strategically important town of Marib on Wednesday.
The threatened expulsions by the Houthis followed strikes by the US and Britain, with support from other countries, against military targets of the Iran-aligned group. The US government last week also said it would return the Houthis to a list of terrorist groups.
The Houthi foreign ministry letter to the UN stated: “The ministry … would like to stress that you must inform officials and workers with US and British citizenships to prepare to leave the country within 30 days.” It was sent to the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Peter Hawkins.
The letter also ordered foreign organisations not to hire American and British citizens for Yemen’s operations.
The US embassy said in a statement that it was aware of reports about the letter but “cannot speak on behalf of the UN or humanitarian organisations in Yemen as to what they may have received from Houthi ‘authorities’”.
The British embassy said staff had not yet been told to leave and the mission was in close contact with the UN on the issue.
“The UN provide vital assistance to the Yemeni people … via the very sea routes that the Houthis are jeopardising,” the British mission in Yemen said in a statement. The UK’s Middle East minister called for the UN to be allowed to get on with the job.
Ahmed bin Mubarak, the foreign minister of the UN-recognised Aden-based government, also claimed Houthi militia had earlier in the week threatened to target a Sudanese civilian plane transporting stranded Yemenis from Port Sudan to Mokha airport.
He made the claim in a meeting with the UN’s Yemen envoy, Hans Grundberg, to illustrate the impossibility of dealing with the Houthis, who resisted a concerted Saudi-led air campaign after capturing Sana’a and forcing the western-backed former president to flee in 2015.
In April 2022 a ceasefire between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition prompted a decline in violence, and fighting has largely remained in abeyance despite the official expiry of the truce in October.
Bin Mubarak stressed the need for the international community to reconsider dealing seriously with the Houthi militias, remarks indicating that the UN-backed governmentwants to see the internal peace process frozen because of the Houthis’ behaviour.
Grundberg also met the Saudi and UAE ambassadors to Yemen, and the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN security council.
He stressed the need to maintain “a favourable environment for the continuation of dialogue in Yemen, and the importance of continuing concerted regional and international support for peace efforts”.
Saudi Arabia is not an enthusiastic supporter of the western strikes on the Houthis because it fears they will destabilise peace talks.
