Missile Attack Narrowly Misses Oil Tanker from India; US Ship Downs Drone – News18

Two missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels narrowly missed an oil and chemical tanker hailing from India, media reports said on Wednesday. The incident happened near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

An American warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone flying in its direction during the incident, a US official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. No one was hurt in the attack, he said.

The ship that was targeted, the oil and chemical tanker Marshall Islands-flagged Ardmore Encounter, was traveling north toward the Suez Canal in the Red Sea, satellite tracking data analyzed by AP showed. The vessel had been coming from Mangalore, India and had an armed security crew aboard it, according to data transmitted by the ship.

The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the attack. The British military earlier reported an incident in the same area of the Ardmore Encounter. It also reported an incident occurring off the coast of Oman.

The Houthis have waded into the Israel-Hamas conflict attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel more than 1,000 miles from their seat of power in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. On Tuesday, a senior official from Houthis warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid traveling toward Israel, after they claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.

The Houthis earlier said they hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile in their latest protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, underlining the risks of a conflict that has shaken the Middle East. The outfit also warned cargo ships against “falsifying their identity” or raising flags different from the country belonging to the cargo ship owner.