Iran-Backed Houthis Attack Three Ships in Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen announced on Thursday they had targeted three more commercial vessels with missiles and drones.

Two of the ships were attacked in the Gulf of Aden, where many previous acts of Houthi terrorism were perpetrated, while the third was in the Indian Ocean.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a televised speech on Thursday that the terrorist regime attacked two ships named MSC Diego and MSC Gina in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday.

Saree said a third vessel, MSC Vittoria, was attacked first in the Indian Ocean and again when it entered the Gulf of Aden.

Saree described the Diego and Gina as “Israeli” ships, and claimed the Houthi missile attacks on them were “accurate.” 

The U.S.-led Joint Maritime Information Center said the two vessels are actually “Panama-flagged container ships” working for a company based in Geneva. According to the Center, the Houthi missiles missed their targets, and neither ship suffered any damage.

MSC Vittoria is also a Panama-flagged container ship. Western military and shipping officials have not confirmed any attack on the Vittoria in either body of water.

Two major shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said in May that they would continue to avoid the Red Sea due to the danger of Houthi attacks even though using the much longer alternate route around Africa is adding massive premiums to shipping costs and delaying deliveries by several days.

The Houthis began threatening to expand their attacks into the Indian Ocean in March, an escalation that could make even the alternate trade route around Africa dangerous. This could bring them into conflict with the Indian Navy, which has deployed more than twenty warships to the region for anti-piracy patrols.

The U.S. Navy said on Tuesday that the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely are returning to the Red Sea after making a port visit to Souda Bay in Greece to rearm and resupply. Both ships had been patrolling the Red Sea since October when Hamas attacked Israel and launched the Gaza War.

Rear Admiral Marc Miguez, commander of the Eisenhower strike group, said his sailors have “worked tirelessly for six months straight to keep us operating on station in the most challenging, dynamic combat environment the Navy has seen in decades.”