Yemeni forces target US destroyer in Red Sea with missiles
Yemen’s Ansarallah movement fired “several” missiles at a US warship in the Red Sea, they said on Wednesday, hours after the US military reported shooting down a missile.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Wednesday that the Yemeni forces had carried out an operation against the USS Gridley destroyer.
He noted that the missile attack came in support of the oppressed Palestinians and resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip and in response to joint American-British aggression against Yemen.
Saree underscored that all US and British warships in the Red Sea and the Arab Sea, which are participating in the ongoing aggression against the Arab nation, have become legitimate targets for Yemenis within the fundamental and inalienable right to defend their homeland and nation, and in reaffirmation of their staunch support of Palestine.
The senior Yemeni military figure also emphasized that his country’s military will continue its anti-Israel operations until the Tel Aviv regime halts its onslaught against Gaza and eases restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid for its Palestinian population.
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
The attacks have prompted some shipping companies to detour around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade.
Container shipping through the Red Sea has dropped by nearly one-third this year as attacks by Yemen on Israel-bound ships continue, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.
“Container shipping... has declined by almost 30 percent,” said Jihad Azour, director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department, adding that “the drop in trade accelerated in the beginning of this year.”
The IMF’s PortWatch platform indicates that the total transit volume – including not only containers – through the Suez Canal was down 37 percent this year through January 16 compared to the same period a year earlier.
The canal connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.