US Central Command (Centcom) announced on Monday morning that Iranian-backed Houthis had launched an anti-ship ballistic missile presumably targeting the M/V Torm Thor, a US-flagged chemical/oil product tanker, noting that the missile fell into the water without causing any damage or injury.
Earlier in the evening, Centcom forces “shot down two one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles over the southern Red Sea in self-defence. A third UAV crashed from an assessed in-flight failure.”
The Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, have begun their operations in the Red Sea, preventing all Israeli-affiliated ships from passing through Bab Al-Mandeb in protest against the Gaza war and in solidarity with “the oppressed Palestinian people, who until this moment have been subjected to aggression and siege.”
The Yemeni group is a key player in the region and a major part of the Iran-backed axis of resistance that includes Iraqi, Palestinian groups as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Earlier this week, Washington used its veto power to override an Algerian draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The US administration has repeatedly declared that it did not want the war to escalate.
