Yemen’s port metropolis of Hodeidah and different western coastal areas have been hit on Monday by a dozen airstrikes attributed to a U.S.-British coalition defending ships within the Red Sea, in accordance with Al Masirah, the principle Houthi-run tv information outlet.
The strikes observe the first civilian fatalities and vessel loss for the reason that Iran-aligned Houthis started attacking industrial transport in November. They additionally coincide with the primary day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a interval of fasting for Muslims.
Al Masirah didn’t specify which targets, if any, had been hit, however mentioned 4 of the strikes had been on the port of Ras Issa.
Despite reprisals from the U.S.-British coalition and different navies, the Houthis have escalated their marketing campaign of assaults on industrial vessels in one of many world’s busiest transport lanes, which they are saying is in solidarity with the Palestinians underneath assault in Gaza in Israel’s conflict with Hamas.
The Houthis killed three crew of the Barbados-flagged, Greek-operated True Confidence on Wednesday in an assault off the port of Aden.
That got here days after the sinking of the cargo ship Rubymar, which went down about two weeks after being hit by a Houthi missile on Feb. 18.
Many ships at the moment are making the longer, costlier journey round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to keep away from the harmful route by the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal – sharply elevating transport prices.
(Reuters – Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Aden, Adam Makary in Cairo; writing by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
