The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operation Center of the British military recently reported a suspected Houthi rebel attack on a tanker in the Red Sea Friday morning. The crew aboard the tanker was unharmed.
It is the latest in an ongoing campaign by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels in their ongoing war against shipping off the coast of Yemen in response to the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Authorities reported the ship was struck by a missile off the coast of the port city of Hodeida but an inspection in the light of day found no evidence of damage.
The private security firm Ambrey reported the same attack and said the tanker, which has a contingency of armed guards, had a near miss on Thursday night in the Gulf of Aden.
It said the ship was affiliated with Israel but ownership was changed last month. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the ship as the Panama-flagged, Vietnamese-owned Pacific 01.
It had been owned by the Eastern Pacific Shipping company out of Singapore.
The parent company has been repeatedly targeted by the Houthis. Eastern Pacific Shipping is run by Idan Ofer, an Israeli billionaire.
The rebels also claimed to have targeted a U.S. destroyer, which has been repeatedly targeted by Houthi missile and drone attacks but to no avail.
Most of the ships targeted by the Houthis have little or no connection to Israel, the United States, or any other nation involved in the war.
The Houthi rebels are members of the Shiite Zaydi sect of Islam, which had ruled Yemen for 1000 years until 1962.
Recently, the rebels claimed to have a hypersonic missile, but there is as yet no evidence of the group having such an advanced weapon. One that the United States military has only recently obtained in the last decade.
