Excellent day for the Houthis: they hit a British ship and shot down a US drone
Fat day for the Houthi rebels, who have seriously damaged a British ship and destroyed an American drone in the skies of Yemen.
A UK-registered vessel has been attacked off the coast of Yemen and military authorities said the crew abandoned the vessel.
Britain's Maritime Trade Operations Authority reported the incident and said military authorities remained at the scene to provide assistance, adding that ships in the area were advised to transit with caution and to report any suspicious activity. to authority.
Reuters , for its part, cited British maritime security services provider Ambrey as confirming the attack on the Belize-flagged vessel operated by a Lebanese entity.
“The partially loaded vessel briefly slowed to 10 to 6 knots, diverted course and contacted the Djibouti Navy, before returning to its previous course and speed,” the security firm said.
This is the latest in an increasingly long series of attacks by Yemen's Houthis against ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Africa and the Middle East. The attacks began last November in response to Israel's bombing of Gaza.
The United States and the United Kingdom have sent their militaries to the Red Sea to prevent attacks and have carried out several strikes against targets on land in Yemen. This has not stopped the Houthi attacks, which have redrawn the map of global shipping.
Despite the strengthening US and British military presence in the Red Sea, many shipping operators have chosen to divert their ships to Africa to avoid the risk of attacks. This added days to travel between Asia and Europe and increased fuel consumption and overall transportation costs.
On energy, the Red Sea situation has pushed European oil buyers to look west rather than east for their crude: exports from the United States have increased, while Middle Eastern oil has moved east , towards Asia, across the Persian Gulf.
MQ-9 Reaper in training flight
The Houthi army also claimed to have shot down a US-made MQ-9 Reaper attack drone over Yemen, which it said was “carrying out hostile missions against our country on behalf of the Zionist entity”.
He did not provide any evidence, but he has shot down the same drone – worth more than $30 million – several times in the past.
In November the Pentagon acknowledged that an MQ-9 was shot down over the Red Sea. The Houthis, who seized power in Yemen's capital, Sanaa , and the country's north in 2014, possess surface-to-air missile systems capable of shooting down advanced drones.
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The article Excellent day for the Houthis: they hit a British ship and shot down a US drone comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/houthi-colpiscono-nave-britannica-e-abbattono-drone/ on Mon, 19 Feb 2024 15:35:49 +0000.